Sensex down 100pts; banks, Infy drags

Meanwhile, broader markets retain gains; mid and smallcap indices up 0.4-0.6%

Markets slipped further in late morning trades as weak global cues coupled with profit booking in heavyweights like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Infosys and L&T weighed on the indices.

At 1130 hrs, the Sensex was down 106 points at 20,784 and the Nifty slipped 32 points to trade at 6,170.

In the broader markets, the smallcap index was up 0.6% and the midcap index gained 0.4%, both continuing to outperform the BSE benchmark index which was down 0.5%.

Also, the rupee weakened due to dollar buying by banks. At 1100 hrs, the rupee was trading at Rs 62.54 compared with previous close of Rs 62.38 per dollar.

Currency dealers see the rupee weakening further in the near term due to month end dollar demand from importers and defence related payments.

In Asia, markets slipped further during the day with Hang Seng up 0.4% being the only market in the green. All the other major indices were in the red with Nikkei down 0.2%, Shanghai Composite down 0.1% and Seoul Composite down 0.9%.

Back home, on the sectoral front, the only indices in the green were Realty index up 1.2% followed by Power and Metal indices up 0.7% and 0.2% respectively.

On the other hand, banking index was down 1.3% along with Capital Goods, Teck, IT, Consumer Durables, Auto, FMCG and Health Care indices losing 0.2-0.5%.

The only gainers among the Sensex-30 were Tata Power up 1.8% followed by Coal India, BHEL, Sesa Sterlite, TCS, Wipro and NTPC gaining 0.3-1%.

Reliance Industries was flat with a positive bias.

Among the losers, ICICI Bank, Cipla, Hindalco, Bharti Airtel, SBI, L&T and HUL down 1-2% were the prominent losers.

Infosys slipped 1%. Recently Stephen Pratt, executive council member, and head of utilities and resources for North America had resigned from the company.

Bajaj Auto, HDFC Bank, Gail India, Tata Motors, Dr Reddys Lab, ONGC, Tata Steel and Sun Pharma which slipped 0.3-0.9% were the other major losers.

The market breadth was positive due to the strength in broader markets. 1,138 stocks advanced while 864 stocks declined On the BSE.