Heavyweights drag Nifty below 6,300

Index heavyweights ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, L&T, RIL and ONGC among the top losers

Markets have extended losses in the morning deals with the Sensex down 108 points at 21,147 and the Nifty gave off 34 points to trade at 6,299 as weakness in heavyweights persists.

However, the broader markets recovered the initial blushes and moved into the positive territory with the smallcap index up 0.2% and the midcap index flat with a positive bias.

The rupee, meanwhile, snapped its five-day rising streak against the American currency and fell by 29 paise at 61.33 per dollar in early trade today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on fresh dollar demand from importers.

Power and FMCG indices were the ones in the positive territory with gains of 0.2-0.5%.

NTPC up nearly 3% remained the top gainer.

FMCG major ITC, HUL, Hindalco, Jindal Steel, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki and HDFC which added 0.1-1% rounded off the gainers list.

United Breweries was up 2% at Rs 793 after the Dutch liquor giant Heineken hike its stake in the company by over one percentage points through open market transaction.
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(Updated at 1030 hrs)
Following the negative global cues, markets opened in the red with the BSE benchmark index down 65 points at 21,190 and the Nifty gave off 25 points to open close to the 6,300 mark at 6,307.

The ones weighing on the indices in the opening trades were heavyweights like ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, L&T, RIL and ONGC.

The broader markets were relatively flat with the midcap index down 0.2% and the smallcap index flat with a negative bias.

Meanwhile, Asian markets look are traded sideways on Wednesday as investors booked profits on a range of once-crowded positions, sending the dollar and Wall Street lower, while lifting the euro, bonds and gold.

News that U.S. budget negotiators had reached a two-year deal to avoid another government shutdown should be a relief to markets globally, but perhaps not enough to brighten the year-end blues.

Stocks in US were off Tuesday, after a record close on the S&P 500, a day earlier. Traders are now eyeing next week's Federal Reserve meeting for potential cues.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended 0.33% lower, while the S&P 500 Index was down 0.32%. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 0.74%.

Back home, among the sectoral indices, only FMCG and Health Care indices were in the green with gains of 0.5% and 0.3% respectively.

Capital Goods index down 1.4% was the top index loser followed by Bankex, Realty, Auto, Oil & Gas and Metal indices, all down 0.5-0.8%.

After the drubbing yesterday, NTPC was up 2% in opening trade and was the top gainer among Sensex-30.

Bharti Airtel, HUL, ITC, Cipla, Bajaj Auto and Tata Power up 0.1-0.8% were the other gainers.

Coal India, Tata Motors, BHEL and L&T down 2% each were the major losers in the opening deals. Coal India was down after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a penalty of 1,773 crore over alleged abuse of its monopolistic position.

Hero MotoCorp, ICICI Bank, Gail India, TCS, Wipro, Maruti Suzuki, SBI, ONGC and Hindalco down 0.7-1% were the other prominent losers.

In individual names, Bharti Infratel surged 7% to Rs 190 after Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm announced a comprehensive telecom infrastructure sharing arrangement under which they will share infrastructure created by both parties.

The market breadth was negative. 557 stocks declined while 388 stocks advanced on the BSE.