Markets continue to remain volatile; Bharti Airtel drops over 5%

Bharti Airtel was the top loser along with index heavyweights ITC, RIL and HDFC

Markets continue to remain volatile in noon trades rebounding from day's lows led by IT major while selling pressure in select index heavyweights capped upside gains.

At 13:35hrs, the 30-share Sensex was down 10 points at 27,448 and the 50-share Nifty was down 13 points at 8,329.

Bharti Airtel was the top loser along with index heavyweights, ITC, Reliance Industries and HDFC.

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(Updated at 12:54PM

Benchmark indices have extended losses with the Nifty breaking the 8,300 level for the first time since January, 14 2015 dragged primarily by the weakness in index heavyweight stocks like ITC, HDFC and RIL as escalation in Middle-Eastern crisis has kept risk-appetite subdued.

 
At 12:54PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 161 points at 27,296 and the 50-share Nifty was down 57 points at 8,285.  
 
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap index, down 1.3% and Smallcap index, down 1% have underperformed the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE is negative with 1,835 declines against 723 advances.    
 
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 521.23 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.
 
Buzzing Stocks
 
11 out of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in red. BSE Realty and Oil & Gas indices down over 2% each are the top losers followed by BSE Healthcare index down around 1.7%. BSE IT index, up 0.9% is the sole gainer.

 
IT stocks are trading mixed in today’s session with Infosys gaining over 3% and TCS gaining over 1%. Wipro has shed close to 2%.
 
Shares of Larsen and Toubro (L&T) are trading higher by 1% after the company said it has won orders worth of Rs 1,711 crore across various business segments in March 2015.
 
 
Among bank shares, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank have gained 0.7% and 0.8% each while housing finance major, HDFC has lost 1.4% and Axis Bank is down close to 2%.
 
Tata Motors, India’s biggest automobile maker, has secured its board of directors’ approval for a Rs 7,500-crore rights issue, to fund ongoing and future activities. The stock is down 0.2%.

 
Pharma stocks like Cipla , Sun Pharma and Dr Reddys Lab have shed 0.8% to 2% each.
 
Bajaj Auto has slipped by 0.2%. The company has launched the Pulsar RS 200 bike, priced at Rs 1,18,500 and Rs 1,30,268 for the non ABS and ABS versions respectively, ex-showroom Maharashtra.
 
Mahindra & Mahindra has expressed an interest in buying car designer Pininfarina but no deal has been reached yet, the Italian company confirmed on Thursday. The stock is down around 1.5%.
 
Bharti Airtel has acquired 11.6 MHz of prime spectrum across 900MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz bands for a total consideration of Rs 29,130 crore in the spectrum auction conducted by the Government of India. Post the latest spectrum acquisition, Bharti Airtel’s spectrum mix will give it unmatched reach in the mobile data segment across 3G and 4G with a pan India footprint, according to company's release to BSE.  The stocks is down over 4%.

 
RIL has lost close to 2% after the governemnt lowered the domestic gas price to $5.02.