Sensex down over 300 points; Nifty dips below 8,000

Financials and index heavyweight Reliance Industries and Tata Motors led the decline.

Markets witnessed selling pressure and the Nifty slipped below the 8,000 mark to hit an intra-day low of 7,998 with financials and index heavyweight Reliance Industries and Tata Motors leading the decline.

At 2PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 328 points at 26,510 and the 50-share Nifty was down 110 points at 8,014.
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(Updated at 1:15PM)
Markets continued to trade weak in noon trades on Thursday, after the temporary pull back in the previous session, as investors pressed sales in financials while weakness in index heavweight Reliance Industries ahead of its AGM tomorrow weighed on investor sentiment.

At 1:15PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 269 points at 26,571 and the 50-share Nifty was down 90 points at 8,034.

The rupee pared early gains and was trading lower at 63.94 to the US dollar compared to the previous close of 63.84 tracking weakness in domestic equities.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers to the tune of Rs 482.11 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional data on the BSE.

ECONOMY

Among macro-economic data, the government is scheduled to unveil industrial production data for April 2015 tomorrow. Industrial output growth touched a five-month low of 2.1% in March from a revised 4.9% in February on the back of an across-the-board slowdown in production.

On the same day, the government is scheduled to unveil the consumer price index (CPI) data for the month of May 2015.

SECTORS & STOCKS

BSE Bankex was the top loser down 1.5% while the NSE Bank Nifty was down 1.3%. Power, Auto and Capital Goods indices were among the other losers.

Financials which had firmed up in the previous sessions after the RBI allowed banks to take control of debt-laden companies by converting loans into equity witnessed profit taking. SBI, HDFC, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank are down between 1-2%.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was down 2% on the BSE ahead of the annual general meeting on June 12. Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, could use the company's 41st annual general meeting to announce plans for telecom subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm.

Tata Steel trimmed losses and was down 1.3% after Unions in UK notified plans to take industrial action in dispute over the Tata Steel UK's proposals to revise the British Steel Pensions Scheme's contribution and benefits framework.

Other Sensex losers include, Tata Motors, Infosys, L&T and ITC among others.

Hindustan Unilever was up nearly 1%  after the FMCG major decided to withdraw its range of Knorr instant noodles from the market awaiting product approval from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

Vedanta was up 1.7% in an otherwise weak market on reports stating that the company is set to make an official announcement on Sunday regarding its merger with wholly owned subsidiary Cairn India.

SMART MOVERS

Shares of Torrent Power were up over 2% after shareholders approved the proposed merger of two group companies with itself.

Shares of National Buildings Construction Corporation were up nearly 2% after the company informed that it has signed an agreement with a Malaysian JV.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were down 0.5-0.6% each.

Market breadth was weak with 1,561 losers and 787 gainers on the BSE.