Markets languish as heavyweights struggle

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries and rate sensitives among the top losers in noon deals

Markets continue to trade in the negative territory as selling in heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank continue to weigh on the indices. Also,  S&P's comments that the economic support for India's sovereign ratings has weakened "somewhat" given the sluggish growth in Asia's third-largest economy, is also weighing on the investor sentiment.

At 1300 hrs, the Sensex was down 95 points at 19,475 and the Nifty lost 22 points at 5,887.

The broader markets too remain weak with the smallcap index down 0.5% in line with the Sensex and the midcap index slipped 0.4% in the early noon deals.

Meanwhile, Asian shares rebounded from three days of losses on Friday as new U.S. data suggested a steady recovery in the world's largest economy, bolstering investors' risk appetite while underpinning the dollar against the yen.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.4%, after falling earlier in the week as investors took profits from regional rallies that took some indexes to record peaks or multi-year highs.

Hong Kong shares rose 0.5% and Shanghai shares soared 1.3%, led by banking and railway counters on restructuring of the mainland's vast rail operations.

South Korean shares underperformed with a 0.6% drop, as heavyweight Samsung Electronics slipped after the launch of its new smartphone.

Japan's Nikkei stock average was among the regional outperformers, climbing 1.3% to a new 4-1/2-year peak after parliament approved Haruhiko Kuroda as the next governor of the Bank of Japan and his two new deputies.

Back home, among the sectoral indices, rate sensitive pockets like Realty, Banks and Auto indices continue to trade in the red, losing 0.7-2%. The others in the negative were Oil & Gas, Metal, Capital Goods and Power indices lost 0.3-0.8%.

On the other hand, the ones in the green were Consumer Durables, IT, Health Care and FMCG indices, up 0.2-1.7%.

Among the Sensex-30, the top gainers were Cipla, Infosys, HDFC, Tata Power and Hindustan Unilever up 1% each.

Hindalco, Mahindra & Mahindra, Sun Pharma and Bajaj Auto added 0.6-0.8%.

On the losing side, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank gave off 2-4% on reports that the government is investigating the allegations of money laundering practices.

Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Gail India, Maruti Suzuki and Jindal Steel lost 1-2%.

The market breadth was negative. 1554 stocks declined while 1028 stocks advanced on the BSE.