Nifty below 8,850 mark; RIL, financials drag

Germany's rejection of Greece's request for an extension to its loan agreement has also dampened the sentiments

Benchmark indices continue to trade weak weighed down by selling pressure among index heavyweight Reliance Inds and select bank shares.

Also, Germany’s rejection of Greece’s request for an extension to its loan agreement has dampened the sentiments of the market participants.

Further, investors have also turned cautious ahead of the Union Budget to be presented in the forthcoming week.

By 10:15, the Sensex was lower by 214 points at 29,248 whereas the Nifty has slipped 59 points at 8,835.

However, broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 0.2% each.

Market breadth in BSE is marginally positive with 854 shares advancing and 686 shares declining.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1542.70 crore on Thursday, as per provisional data.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 195.74 crore on Thursday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

GAINERS & LOSERS

BSE Oil & Gas index has plunged nearly 2% followed by counters like banks, Consumer Durables and IT, all dipping by 1% each. However, BSE Realty index has surged almost 2%.

Reliance Inds is the top Sensex loser, down over 3%. The Union government on Thursday cracked down on illegal information leaks from the petroleum and natural gas ministry.

Delhi Police detained two employees of the ministry and three other persons for allegedly leaking confidential information. One of them is an employee of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), the country's largest private sector oil company.

Other notable losers are ICICI Bank, Tata Power, HDFC, TCS, Wipro and Axis Bank, all declining between 1-2%.

On the gaining side, Hindalco, BHEL, Tata Steel, Sesa Sterlite and GAIL have increased between 1-2%.

Among other shares, SpiceJet has surged 15% at Rs 23 on BSE in early morning trade after the company said that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has cleared Ajay Singh's proposal to acquire a majority stake in the company.

Shares of sugar companies continued their upward march for the second day in a row, after the cabinet committee on Economic Affairs on Thursday cleared a proposal to extend a subsidy of Rs 4,000 a tonne on export of 1.4 million tonnes of raw sugar in the 2014-15 crop year (which began last October and runs till end-September this year).

Bajaj Hindustan, Shree Renuka Sugars, Balrampur Chini Mills, Oudh Sugars, Ugar Sugar Works and EID Parry are trading higher between 2-6% on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).