Markets edge lower as FIIs sell index futures

IT heavyweights and HDFC among top losers

Worries about slowing foreign portfolio investments kept the Indian markets under pressure in noon deals.

Overseas investors sold index futures worth 4.44 billion rupees ($73.91 million) on Tuesday, resuming their five-day selling streak after a one-day halt on Monday.

At 1250 hrs, both the Sensex and Nifty gave off nearly half a percent with the Sensex down 107 points at 22,401 and the Nifty edged lower by 35 points at 6,681.

However, there was some buying visible in broader markets. The midcap index gained 0.4% and the smallcap index was up 0.3%, both outperforming the Sensex.

Asian Markets

Meanwhile, Asian shares stumbled to a one-month low and the safe-haven yen hovered just below a multi-month high against the dollar on Wednesday as the heightened possibility of Ukraine slipping into civil war depressed risk appetite.

Ukraine has so far experienced its deadliest week since the separatist uprising began, leaving less room for peace efforts.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.7% after touching its lowest point since April 2. Japan's Nikkei lost 2.5%, tracking Tuesday's fall on Wall Street.

Sectors & Stocks

IT and Teck indices down 2% each were the only sectoral losers. Realty and Auto indices were flat with a negative bias.

The decline in IT space started after UBS downgraded Infosys to 'sell' citing the longer-than-expected turnaround time at the IT outsourcer. As a result, all the IT majors, Infosys, TCS and Wipro were down 1-3% and were among the top losers.

Consumer Durables up 1.6% was the top sectoral gainer followed by Health Care and Power indices up 0.5-0.7%.

NTPC, Sun Pharma, BHEL and SBI firmed by 1-2% and were the top gainers among Sensex-30.

Axis Bank, ONGC, Tata Motors, Coal India, Tata Steel and Sesa Sterlite up 0.2-0.8% were the other notable gainers.

In individual names, IRB Infrastructure Developers strengthened by 5% to Rs 121 in an otherwise weak market after the company said it has bagged an order worth around Rs 2,300 crore from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

Shriram City Union Finance gained 2.3% on huge block deal. About 1.65 million shares, representing 2.8% of total equity capital of Shriram City Union Finance, have changed hands at a price of Rs 1,251 per share in opening trades via block deal, the BSE data shows. However, the name of the buyers and sellers are not known.

The market breadth was marginally negative. 1,214 stocks declined while 1,210 stocks advanced.