Nifty holds 8,000; banks, oil shares rebound

The 30-share Sensex was down 40 points at 26,741 and the 50-share Nifty was down 26 points at 8,04

Benchmark share indices were trading with marginal losses amid a recovery from their day's lows helped by a rebound in oil, financials and metal shares.

At 1:10PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 40 points at 26,741 after hitting a low of 26,469 and the 50-share Nifty was down 26 points at 8,041 after hitting a low of 7,961.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was down 0.6% and Small-cap index fell 1.1%.

Market breadth was weak with 1,711 losers and 787 gainers on the BSE.

The rupee fell a 13-month low against the dollar on Wednesday while benchmark bond yields hit their highest level in two weeks as the brewing financial crisis in Russia continued to raise concerns about foreign fund outflows.

The partially convertible rupee was trading at 63.62 per dollar, after hitting as weak as 63.89, its lowest level since Nov. 13, 2013. It had closed on Tuesday at 63.53.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net sellers in Indian equities worth Rs 1,247.24 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

The BSE Auto and Consumer Durables indices were down 1.3% each while FMCG and Healthcare indices were down over 1% each.

However, the Metal index was up 1.1% while Oil & Gas index was up 0.6% and Bankex gained 0.1%.

Mortgage lender HDFC was up over 1%. HDFC Property Fund, set up by Housing Development Finance Corp Ltd, India's biggest mortgage lender, plans to raise a $500 million fund to invest in residential real estate projects, said people directly involved in the process.

In the banking pack, SBI, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank were up 0.4-1.9% each.

Oil shares recovered on the back of short covering at lower after the sharp decline tracking weak global cues. ONGC was up 2% and Reliance Industries was up 0.6% while GAIL was up 0.8%.

Metal shares which had lost ground on the back of weak China manufacturing firmed up in noon trades. Sesa Sterlite was up 2.3% and Hindalco gained nearly 1%. Tata Steel was up 3% The Odisha state government has issued orders to restart operations of four captive iron ore mines of Tata Steel following an interim order of the Odisha High Court (HC).

Pharma shares were among the losers on fears that a crash of the Russian currency would hurt their exports. A weaker currency raises the cost of imports hurting further demand. Sun Pharma and Cipla was 1.5-2.5% each.

However, Dr Reddy's Labs rebounded from day's lows. A pharma analyst at Angel Broking belives that it’s unlikely to have much impact on the profitability of the company, as the company derives only 15% of its sales (in FY2014) from the Russia and other markets in the region. The stock was up 1.7%.

ITC was down 2.5% along while Tata Motors slipped 1.5% on the back of weak JLR sales.

Among other shares, SpiceJet slipped over 5% on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to Rs 13.15 levels in intra-day trade after the airline failed to operate any flight on Wednesday after being refused ATF (aviation turbine fuel) by public sector oil companies.

Shares of logistic company Gateway Distriparks has surged nearly 8% to Rs 344, bouncing back 15% from intra-day’s low on BSE after a huge block deal executed on the counter.