Markets slip on weak global cues

HDFC, HDFC Bank among top Sensex losers

Markets continue to trade with negative bias, amid weak global cues, weighed down by financial shares.

At 2:34PM, the BSE Sensex was down 152 points at 17,369 and the Nifty lost 52 points at 5,265.

Further, the broader markets underperformed the benchmarks with the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices down over 1% each after profit taking following the surge last week.Last week, the BSE Mid-cap index surged 2.6% while the BSE Small-cap index jumped 4.3%.

Japan's Nikkei share average suffered its biggest fall in over a month on Monday as surprisingly weak Japanese machinery orders fanned worries about faltering global growth sparked by sluggish U.S. jobs figures. The Nikkei fell 1.4 percent to 8,896.88, posting its daily biggest fall since June 8 and slipping for the third straight session. The broader Topix index dropped 1.0 percent to 763.93. The Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite were down 1.9% and 2.4%, respectively.

The euro hovered near a two-year low on Monday as the darkening global growth outlook kept risk assets under pressure, and with investors not hopeful of progress on the euro zone debt crisis at a meeting of finance ministers later in the day. The DAX, CAC-40 and FTSE were down 0.5-1% each.

Among the sectoral indices, Power, Capital Goods, Metals, Realty and Bankex were the major losers down over 1% each.

In the financial space. HDFC Bank was down 1.6% on profit taking after the stock gained nearly 7% last week.HDFC was down over 1.5% ahead of its results on Friday on concerns that profit growth could be lower on the back of sluggish demand for home loans during the first quarter. Among others ICICI Bank and SBI were down nearly 1% each.

Bharti Airtel also witnessed profit taking and was down nearly 2% after telecom shares surged last week after the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) gave a split verdict on a challenge by mobile phone operators seeking to overturn a government order requiring them to stop offering 3G services beyond their licensed zones through mutual roaming pacts, lawyers said

Other Sensex losers include, index heavyweight Reliance Industries and capital goods major Larsen & Toubro.

Among other shares, Chemfab Alkalies has soared 11% to Rs 51.55 on reporting a net profit of Rs 5.45 crore for the quarter ended June 2012, AS against a net loss of Rs 2.02 crore in the same quarter last year. The profit comes on back of higher operational income. Net sales grew almost three-fold at Rs 26.05 crore on year-on-year basis.

The market breadth continued to remain weak with 1,732 losers and 996 gainers on the BSE.