Nifty hovers around 7,710; ICICI Bank dips 2%

Weakness in Tata Motors, Hindalco, ITC and SBI weighed on the indices

Markets slipped in early noon trades with the Sensex down over 100 points. Weakness in heavyweights like Tata Motors, Hindalco, ITC and SBI weighed on the indices.

At 1220 hrs, the Sensex was down 116 points at 25,791 and teh Nifty gave off 36 points to trade at 7,710.

The activity in broader amrkets was restrained with the midcap index flat with a positive bias while the smallcap index advanced nearly 0.6%.

Banking index down over 1% was the top sectoral loser along with Realty, Metal, Auto, FMCG and Health Care indices lower by 0.4-0.7%.

Meanwhile, there was some buying seen in Capital Goods, IT and Power. The respective indices gained over 0.5% each.

Infosys and BHEL up nearly 2% each were the top gainers among Sensex-30.

Hindustan Unilever, RIL, Coal India, L&T, Bajaj Auto and Mahindra & Mahindra up 0.4-0.8% were some of the other major gainers.

Among the ones in red were Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank, all down 2% each.

The market breadth was positive owing to the strength in broader markets on BSE. 1501 stocks advanced while 1131 stocks declined.

Rupee

The rupee fell to 61.32 after hitting 61.41, its lowest since March 14 and weaker than its 60.8450/8550 close on Tuesday.

The pair is seen moving in 61.10 to 61.40 range during the rest of the session.

Most Asian currencies were also trading weaker compared with the dollar.

Asian Markets

Asian stocks fell broadly on Wednesday while the U.S. dollar held firm after a slump on Wall Street and tensions over Ukraine instilled a mood of risk aversion across markets.

Geopolitical concerns overshadowed upbeat U.S. economic data which included a spike in service-sector activity to a nine-year peak and a surprisingly large increase in factory orders.

For now, the drag from Wall Street was too much for regional markets and MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.5%.

In China, the CSI300 of the leading Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listings shed 1%.

Japan's Topix gave up 0.9%, while the Nikkei fell 1%.