Nifty hits lowest level this year; Rupee at 62.40

Sensex and Nifty down over 1% each; Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, L&T and ICICI Bank edge lower by 3% each

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Markets have started the week on an anemic note with both the Sensex and the Nifty losing over 1% in opening trades.

At 0920 hrs, the Sensex was down 199 points at 18,400 and the Nifty edged lower by 71 points at 5,436, breaking the April 2010 lows of 5,477.

 There was no respite on the Rupee front too, as the currency was trading around the levels of 62.40

In the broader markets, the midcap index slipped 1.55 and the smallcap index was down 0.8% in opening trades.

In Asia, markets were wary on Monday amid doubts whether minutes of the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting will provide clarity on when it might scale back stimulus, leading gold up to a two-month peak and nudging the U.S. dollar lower.

Asian share markets showed no clear trend with a mixture of small losses and gains, while pressure remained on Indian assets after the rupee cratered to record lows despite government efforts to stem the flow.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.1%. It had ended last week with gains of 1.45%, though that merely recovered ground lost during the previous two weeks.

Tokyo's Nikkei share average inched up 0.1% on Monday after ending last week flat. Japanese data showed the third-largest trade deficit on record as imports rose even faster than exports.

Sectors & Stocks

Among the sectoral indices, IT, Health Care, Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas were the only pockets in the green, up 0.3-1.3%. Meanwhile, rate sensitives - Capital Goods, Bankex, Auto and Realty cracked down 0.9-2.5%.  FMCG, Metal and Power indices lost 0.3-1.8%.

The only stocks in the green among the Sensex-30 were IT heavyweights like Infosys, TCS and Wipro, up 1% each along with Gail India, Tata Power and Cipla adding a percent each.

Hindalco, Dr Reddys Lab, Sun Pharma and Sterlite were the other marginal gainers, adding 0.2-0.5%.

The ones leading the fall in opening trades were Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, L&T and ICICI Bank down 3% each.

All the auto names were edging lower with Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp losing 1.6-2.5%.

HDFC, HDFC Bank, SBI, Jindal Steel, Coal India, NTPC and ONGC shed 0.8-2.3%.

FMCG majors, ITC and HUL were down 0.3% each.

The market breadth was negative. 731 stocks declined while 363 stocks advanced on the BSE.