Nifty slips below 6,800, ITC & Maruti Suzuki down 3%

RIL, ITC, HUL among the top losers

Indices have extended losses with the Sensex and the Nifty slipping below 22,700 mark and 6,800 levels, respectively.

At 1350 hrs, the Sensex was down 168 points at 22,707 and the Nifty gave off 55 points to trade at 6,786.

The main losers on the Sensex at this hour include ITC, Maruti Suzuki, NTPC, HUL, ICICI Bank and Hero Moto.

ICICI Bank Ltd, India's biggest private sector lender by assets, posted a 15% rise in quarterly net profit, beating estimates, helped by a surge in demand for loans from retail customers and higher fee income.

Maruti Suzuki Ltd, India's biggest carmaker, reported a 35.5% fall in fourth-quarter profit, missing estimates, as potential car buyers postponed their purchases and waited for a slowing economy to pick up.

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(Updated at 1355 hrs)
Benchmark indices are hovering in negative zone in the afternoon trade, with the CNX Nifty index hitting fresh intraday low weighed down by oil and FMCG shares.

At 1255 hrs, the Sensex was down 38 points at 22,837 and the Nifty gave off 16 points to trade at 6,825.

Adds Mohit Gaba, Independent technical analyst & trader, “The Nifty index has been moving higher in a choppy fashion. Supports on the Nifty around 6790 - 6760. It s smart not to put a ceiling on the Nifty buy psychological resistances are at 6900 & then 7000.”

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 767.61 crore on Wednesday, 23 April 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

The stock market was closed on Thursday, 24 April 2014, on account of Parliamentary elections in Mumbai constituency.

On the global front, Asian stocks struggled on Friday as fears of an escalating Ukraine crisis eclipsed upbeat US economic data and robust US tech shares.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that time was running out for Moscow to change its course in Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces killed up to five pro-Russia separatists on Thursday and Russia conducted army drills near the border, raising fears its troops would invade.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan erased early modest gains and fell 0.8%, on track for a 1% weekly loss but still up nearly 3% for the year.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index shed 1.3% and touched a four-week low on concerns about the state of China's economy and the health of the banking sector.

Back home, the rupee is trading at 61.10/11 versus its previous close of 61.07/08 amid lack of any major triggers though month-end dollar demand from oil importers could push the pair higher later in the session.

On the sectoral front, BSE Oil & Gas and FMCG indices have declined between 1-2%. However, BSE Realty, Consumer Durables and Healthcare indices have gained between 1-2%.

The main losers on the Sensex at this hour include Maruti Suzuki, RIL, ITC, HUL, NTPC, Wipro, Cipla, L&T and TCS.

On the gaining side, M&M, Dr Reddy’s Labs, BHEL, HDFC and Bharti Airtel have gained between 2-3%.

Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) has rallied nearly 4% to Rs 1,081, also is lifetime high on the NSE, after Credit Suisse upgraded its rating on M&M to "outperform" from "neutral".

Realty stocks are in demand on renewed buying. Indiabulls Real Estate, Housing Development and Infrastructure, D B Realty, Unitech, and Parsvnath Developers have gained between 1-7%.

Bharti Infratel gained 3.55% after consolidated net profit jumped 64.43% to Rs 472.40 crore on 3.97% increase in total income to Rs 2934.40 crore in Q4 March 2014 over Q4 March 2013.

Shares of Biocon were up nearly 3% at Rs 481 after the company today reported robust earnings for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2014.

The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap index has gained over 0.1% whereas the Smallcap index is marginally down.

The market breadth in BSE remains negative with 1,276 shares advancing and 1,193 shares declining.