Nifty slips below 7,700; RIL, HDFC dip 1%

Markets continue to trade weak, amid weak global cues, with RIL, HDFC Group shares leading the decline

Markets continue to trade lower in noon trades, amid weak global cues, with index heavyweight Reliance Industries and HDFC Group shares leading the decline. Further, selling by foreign funds in the previous session also weighed on sentiment.

At 1:05PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 121 points at 25,773 and the 50-share Nifty was down 34 points at 7,687.

Foreign institutional investors were sellers in equities to the tune of Rs 165 crore on Thursday.

The Indian rupee was trading sharply lower at Rs 60.80 compared to its its previous close of Rs 60.55 after the dollar strengthened following upbeat US GDP data. Further, weakness in domestic equities also weighed on sentiment.

Asian markets were trading lower tracking overnight losses on Wall Street. Chinese shares erased early gains despite China's factories reported strongest growth since 18 months in July 2014 on the back of new order inflows. The official Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) released by the government surged to a 27-month high of 51.7 in July. The Nikkei ended down 0.6% at 15,523.11. The Shanghai Composite was down 0.7%, Hang Seng slipped 0.9% and Straits Times was trading nearly 1% lower.

European shares were also trading with marginal losses in early trades with CAC-40, DAX and FTSE down 0.2-0.3% each.

BSE IT, Healthcare, Capital Goods, Oil and Gas indices were among the top losers down 0.5-0.9% each.

Realty, Bankex, FMCG and Auto indices were among the top gainers.

Mortgage lender HDFC was down 1.3% while HDFC Bank was down 0.9%.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was down nearly 0.9% on concerns that its margins on retail fuels would come under pressure after state-owned oil PSUs lowered petrol prices. ONGC was also down 1%.

L&T continued to witness profit taking post its first quarter earnings and was down 0.8%.

TCS which had gained post its June quarter results was down 1.2% on profit taking.

However, ICICI Bank was up nearly 2%. The private banking major reported a 17 per cent growth in its standalone net profit to Rs 2,655 crore in the April-June quarter, compared with Rs 2,274 crore in the year-ago quarter, on the back of both higher core and fee income.

Maruti Suzuki was up 3.5% after the company, today, reported 21.7% increase in its total sales for July at 1,01,380 units as against 83,299 units in the same month last year. The company said its domestic sales rose 19.9% during the month to 90,093 units as against 75,145 units in July 2013.

Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications (RCom)  have gained on reports that mobile tariffs could rise between 8–9% going ahead.

Among other shares, Credit Analysis and Research surged 3.6% to Rs 1,242 at on the BSE after the company posted  9.4% rise in the net profit  at Rs 26.60 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2014.

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services is up nearly 5% at Rs 246 after a block deal at Rs 238.30 per share on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Union Bank of India surged 7% to Rs 204 on the BSE after the company posted 19% rise in the net profit at Rs 664 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2014 as against Rs 560 crore for the same period last year.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.4% and the BSE Small-cap index was up 0.3%.

Market breadth was nearly neutral with 1,298 losers and 1,270 losers on the BSE.