Negative bias prevails, RIL down

RIL and IT shares lead the fall

Key share indices continue to maintain the negative trend with index heavyweight Relaince Inds and IT shares leading the decline. At 10:40, the Sensex plunged by 58 points at 16839, and the Nifty down 17 points at 5,104 levels.

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Updated at 9:41

Markets have opened soft, taking cues from global bourses. The Sensex is down 45 points at 16,850. Nifty is down 14 points at 5,107.

US stocks edged lower on Wednesday after the  Federal Reserve held rates steady and acted to aid the fragile economy with stimulus measures that were in-line with market expectations.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 0.1% and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 0.2%.

Asian stocks struggled on Thursday following the US Federal Reserve’s actions and mirrored declines on Wall Street. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan edged down around 0.2%. Japan's Nikkei share average bucked the trend, rising 0.7%.

BSE capital goods has gained 1% at 9,679. Consumer durables, auto, power and FMCG indices have advanced marginally as well. However, selling pressure can be seen in oil & gas index which is down 0.8% at 7,914.

Among individual stocks, banking stocks are in red after rating agency Fitch downgraded the long-term foreign currency issuer default rating of these financial institutions to negative. SBI has slipped 0.8% to Rs 2,100. HDFC bank is flat at Rs 534.

BHEL, ITC and Hero MotoCorp are in the green. BHEL has surged 3% in morning trades at Rs 221. Among other gainers are ONGC, Larsen & Toubro and Bharti Airtel.

However, Reliance has dropped 2% at Rs 723 and is the top dragger among Sensex stocks. IT shares - TCS and Infosys are down 1% each,

Reliance Communication has slipped 1% while Idea Cellular has advanced 1%, as Pranab Mukherjee-led EGoM is slated to decide on the base price for the 2G spectrum auction today.

Cable and broadcasting companies like Den Networks, Hathway Cable on reports that the information and broadcasting ministry has extended the deadline for digitilisation in four metros from June 30 to October 31, 2012. Den Networks is down 2% at Rs 97.80, Hathway Cables is down 2.3%. Meanwhile WWIL is up 4% in trades.