Markets end lower on weak Asian cues

Markets ended lower for the second straight day, amid weak Asian cues, as investors booked profits in late trades ahead of the assembly election results due on Sunday.

The 30-share Sensex ended down 147 points at 20,709 and the 50-share Nifty ended down 41 points at 6,161.

The rupee was trading marginally higher to the US dollar at Rs 62.30 compared with yesterday's close of Rs 62.36 as the dollar flows from banks is seen helping offset dollar demand from oil marketing companies.

Asian markets with the exception of Shanghai Composite were trading lower and the Nikkei retreated from its 6-year closing highs. Investors booked profits on concerns that the tapering by US Fed would lead to reduction in foreign fund inflows. The Nikkei ended down 2.2% at 15,408. Shanghai COmposite ended up 1.3% while Hang Seng and Straits Times ended nearly 1% lower.

The BSE Realty index was the top loser among the sectoral indices down 2.7% followed by Capital Goods, FMCG, Auto, Oil and Gas indices down 0.8-1.4% each.

Capital Goods shares witnessed profit taking after recent gains while high inflation levels continued to weigh on FMCG stocks.

ITC, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Tata Motors and L&T were down 1.4-1.9% each contributing the most to the Sensex decline.

Wipro and Infosys were among the top Sensex gainers.

Among other shares, VST Tillers Tractors ended up 5.4% at Rs 626 after the company said HDFC Mutual Fund bought nearly 150,000 shares through open market. HDFC Mutual Fund has acquired a total 147,587 shares representing 1.71% total equity of VST Tillers Tractors for Rs 8.80 crore through two bulk deals on the NSE and BSE.

Shares of power companies such as Adani Power, Tata Power and Reliance Power ended higher, extending their past four days gain on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). According to Economic Times reports, the government is working out a plan to restructure the loans, extend repayment deadlines by three years and waive penalties.

Shares in Tata Elxsi surged 12% to end at Rs 329 on back of heavy volumes. Nearly 8 million shares changed hands against around one million shares that were traded daily in past two weeks on the NSE and BSE.

Jyothy Laboratories has moved higher by 6% to end at Rs 200 after the household products maker said it has raised around Rs 273 crore by issuing shares to Sahyadri Agencies on preferential basis.

Kamat Hotels (India) ended up 3% at Rs 68, extending its previous day's 20% rally, on back of heavy volumes. The company engaged in hotel business has trimmed its net losses substantially to Rs 6.62 crore for the first half (April-September) of the current financial year 2013-14, due to lower total expenditure and in1terest cost.

In the broader market, BSE Mid-cap index ended down 0.7% and Small-cap index ended down 0.1%.

 Market breadth ended negative with 1,339 losers and 1,138 gainers on the BSE.