Markets end lower, Banks hit

Asian markets end mixed

Markets ended lower on Thursday on back of profit-booking witnessed in banks after upbeat third-quarter earnings amid concerns over global growth recovery.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index Sensex fell 106 points and ended at  19,899  provisionally while the National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty fell 22 points  to provisionally end at 6,033.

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Updated at 2:20PM

Markets fell in afternoon session on Thursday as investors booked profits in financials after upbeat third-quarter earnings.

At 2:20PM, the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index Sensex fell 90 points and traded at  19,915  while the National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty fell 16 points  to trade at 6,039.

Risk appetite was also frail on caution ahead of January derivatives contract expiry.

In the results calendar, Siemens, Shobha Developers, Tata Global Beverages, Trent are scheduled to announce third-quarter results later today.

Asian shares paused amid concerns over US growth recovery after world's biggest economy experienced the first quarter of negative GDP growth (-0.1% quarter-on-quarter at an annualized rate) since the Great Recession.

Meanwhile,  US Federal Reserve did not announce any policy change on Wednesday . It did change its assessment of the economy and acknowledged that “economic activity paused in recent months", but added that it was “in large part because of weather-related disruptions and other transitory factors".

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.4% to 23,729, Taiwan's Weighted index rose 0.22% to 7,850,  Singapore's Straits Times inched down 0.1% to 3,282 while China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.12% to 2,385 and Japan's Nikkei rose 0.22% to 11,138.

In Europe, France's CAC fell 0.35% to 3,756, Germany's DAX declined 0.16% to 7,798 while UK's FTSE was down 0.3% to 6,303.
Back home, consumer durables, PSU, real-esate  rose while metals, IT, oil & gas, bank sectors, declined on BSE.

Among key Sensex stocks, BHEL gained 2.5%, Coal India rose 0.8%, ITC was up 0.7% ,Sun Pharma gained 0.67% on BSE.


Among losers,  Sterlite Industries and Jindal Steel dropped 2.7% and 1%, Tata Power dropped 2.5%, Dr Reddy's fell 1%,  ICICI and HDFC Bank shed 1% , Reliance Industries was down 1.15, Larsen & Toubro  shed 1% on BSE.

The other key notable movers include, Colgate-Palmolive (India) that fell 3% to Rs 1,339 after reporting 4% year-on-year (yoy) drop in net profit at Rs 111 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2012 (Q3) due to higher advertisement expenses.

ICICI Bank, country's biggest private-sector lender, fell over 1% as investor's booked profits after upbeat results. ICICI Bank posted a 30% jump in net profit at Rs 2,250 crore for the quarter ended December 2012. It was Rs 1,728 crore in the same period a year ago.

DLF, country's biggest developer, gained 2% after realty giant said it has sold the 150MW wind turbine project in Gujarat to Bharat Light and Power for Rs 282.30 crore as part of its strategy to exit from non-core businesses. 

The broader markets was fell with mid-caps and small-caps shedding 0.1-0.3% on BSE.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 2,803 stocks traded, 1,470 stocks declined compared to 1,157 advances on BSE.