Nifty slips below 6050; Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel down 2.5%

Key benchmark indices extended loses in noon deals wiht sell-off instensified in banks and IT heavyweights among others. 

At 1235 hrs, the 30-share BSE Sensex was trading 156 points lower at 20,358 levels after hitting a low of 20,348 and the 50-unit NSE Nifty was trading 44 points lower at 6,044 after touching an intra-day low of 6,044.

ICICI Bank down 1.9%, Tata Motors down 2.5%, TCS down 1.1%, HDFC down 1.3% and Infosys slipped 0.7% and remain the key Sensex losers at this hour.

(Update at 1235 hours)

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Benchmark share indices came off their day's lows but overall trend continued to remain weak on profit taking in telecom shares ahead of the spectrum auction and IT majors amid a strengthening rupee.

At 11:35AM, the 30-share Sensex was trading 98 points lower at 20,415 after hitting a low of 20,392 and the 50-share Nifty was trading 28 points lower at 6,062 after touching an intra-day low of 6,052.

The rupee was trading strong in early trade due to dollar sale by exporters. The rupee was trading at Rs 62.60 compared with previous close of Rs 62.68 per dollar. The rupee is seen range bound during the day by currency dealers. Traders will continue to monitor the domestic share market for cues on foreign fund flows.

Asian markets continued to trade lower on the back of weak economic data from China. The Hang Seng, China and Taiwan markets are closed on account of Lunar New Year holidays. According to official data released over the weekend, China's monthly purchasing manager's index eased to 50.5 in January, the lowest in five-months, compared with 51 in December and 51.4 in November. Japan's benchmark index Nikkei was down nearly 2% and Straits Times was down 1%.

BSE Metal index was the top loser among the sectoral indices down 1.6% followed by Realty, Auto, IT and Bankex indices among others. Healthcare and Consumer Durables indices were among the top gainers.

IT majors TCS and Infosys were down 0.7% each while Wipro eased 0.4% amid a strengthening rupee. All these companies earn a major portion of their revenues from exports to the US.

Shares of mobile phone service providers such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Comm and Idea were down 1.5-2% each on worries that aggressive bidding for the 900-MHz bandwidth with the entry of Reliance Jio would lead to higher costs for retaining the spectrum.

Share of four-wheeler majors such as Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra were down 0.6-2% each after they reported disappointing January sales on Saturday.

Other shares which contributed to the Sensex decline include ICICI Bank and FMCG major ITC.

Pharma shares were trading marginally higher with Sun Pharma and Dr Reddys Labs up 1-2% each.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was trading flat while BSE Small-cap index was trading 0.3% higher.

Market breadth was marginally higher with 1,077 gainers and 909 losers on the BSE.