Sensex down over 150 pts; L&T down 3%

L&T, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, SBI and Bajaj Auto down 2-3% among the top losers

Markets slipped further in morning trades as profit booking in heavyweights like ICICI Bank, L&T, HDFC, ITC and RIL weighed on the indices.

At 1030 hrs, the Sensex was down 167 points or 0.8% at 20,692 and the Nifty gave off 50 points or 0.8% at 6,167.

In the broader markets, the mid and the small cap indices were marginally in the red, down 0.1%, both outperforming the BSE benchmark index.

The rupee weakened in early trades after the Federal Reserve said it would scale down its monthly bond purchases, sending emerging market currencies lower.

The partially convertible rupee was at 62.42 to the dollar versus its close of 62.09 on Wednesday.

However, Asian share markets rose on Thursday after the Federal Reserve drew the sting from tapering its stimulus by recommitting to low interest rates, leaving Wall Street at record heights and the dollar galloping above 104.00 yen for the first time since 2008.

The slide in the yen was viewed as positive for Japanese exports and profits, and thus for the Nikkei which climbed 1.6% to threaten its peak for this year.

Back home, among the sectoral indices, It index up 1% and Health Care index up 0.5% were the only indices in the positive territory.

Bankex, Capital Goods, Realty, Power and Oil & Gas indices down 1-2% were the major sectoral losers.

Jindal Steel, TCS, Infosys, Sesa Sterlite, Hindalco and Wipro up 1-2.5% were the prominent gainers among Sensex-30.

Maruti Suzuki and Sun Pharma up 0.5% and 0.8% respectively rounded off the gainers list.

L&T, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, SBI and Bajaj Auto down 2-3% were the major losers.

Hero MotoCorp, BHEL, Tata Power, ITC, RIL, Gail India, HDFC Bank and NTPC gave off 1-1.7% in morning deals.

Shares of Strides Arcolab have dipped 58% or Rs 512 at Rs 371 on the NSE after turning ex-dividend today.

Power Grid Corporation of India slipped by 3% at Rs 97 on back of heavy volumes after fresh shares of 602 million allotted in follow-on-public offer (FPO) starts trading today.

The market breadth on BSE has turned absolutely flat.