Markets near day's lows; Infosys down 2%

Markets slip amid weak Asian cues with bank shares leading the decline

Markets continued to exhibit weakness in late trades on Monday, amid weak Asian cues, as investors turned cautious and booked profit in financials and index heavyweights

At 2:30PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 91 points at 20,760 after hitting a low of 20,722 and the 50-share Nifty was down 28 points at 6,183 after touching a low of 6,170.

The rupee came off its day's lows of Rs 62.45 to the dollar on report that the RBI has intervened and bought a small quantity of dollars. The Indian currency was trading at 62.25 compared with Friday's close of Rs 62.16.

Asian stocks were down tracking China's weak December services PMI. Shares in Japan witnessed profit taking after recent gains while a stronger yen also dampened sentiment. According to a survey by China's National Bureau of Statistics growth in the services sector slipped to a four-month low of 54.6 in December compared with 56.0 in November.The Nikkei ended down 2.4%, the Shanghai Composite slipped 1.8%, Hang Seng was down 0.6% and Straits Times was trading 0.3% lower.

European shares which had opened lower in early trades ahead of economic data from the euro zone and minutes of the US Fed meeting later this week have rebounded to turn marginally positive. The DAX, CAC-40 and FTSE-100 were up 0.1-0.2% each.

The BSE Bankex was the top loser among the sectoral indices down 1.2% followed by IT, Realty and Power indices.

Bank shares were down after fall in December services PMI raised concerns of economic growth revival. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank were down 0.5-2.2% each.

Among the index heayweights Infosys was down nearly 2% ahead of its second quarter earnings due for release on Friday.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) was up 2.4% after the company said it will invest around $9 billion in bringing to production an array of oil and gas discoveries in its prolific Krishna-Godavari basin block off the east coast by 2017-18.

Tata Motors also rebounded today after the recent correction following dismal December sales. The stock was up 1.7%. Last week, the auto major reported 42.28% decline in its total vehicle sales at 37,852 units in December 2013.

Other Sensex losers include, Reliance Ind and Larsen & Toubro.

Among other shares, RPP Infra Projects is locked in upper circuit of 20% at Rs 60.40 after the company said it has won contracts from Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) and Mangalore Special Economic Zone (MSEZ).

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.2% and the Small-cap index wsa up 0.9%.

Market breadth was positive with 1,357 gainers and 1,026 losers on the BSE.