Sensex down over 200 points; rate sensitives weigh

Financials and auto stocks were the top losers while IT shares recovered

Markets were down as profit taking emerged in rate sensitive shares after sharp gains in the previous session which lifted the benchmarks to 18-month highs. Further, IT stocks staged a recovery in noon trades after weakness in early deals.

At 12:45pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was down by 221 points at 28,825 and the Nifty50 slipped 69 points at 8,884.  In the broader markets, BSE Midcap and the Smallcap indices eased between 0.3%-0.6% each. Market breadth was weak with 1485 losers and 968 gainers on the BSE.

Asian markets came off their intra-day highs after reports that North Korea has conducted a nuclear test. Further, the European Central Bank at its policy meet on Thursday maintained a status quo on key rates and also surprised the market by not extending the dealine of its bond-purchases programme.

Financials which had surged in the previous sessions trended lower with HDFC down 2.5% followed by ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI down 0.7%-2% each.

In the auto pack, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp and Maruti Suzuki were down 1.5%-2.4% each.

Defensives which had gained in the previous also witnessed bouts of profit taking. In the FMCG space, ITC slipped 2.2% while Hindustan Unilever was down over 1%.

ONGC was up over 2% after the state-owned energy major notified seven new discoveries during the quarter and eight so far in FY17 — with new prospect of discoveries and five new pool discoveries. However, the company posted a 21% decline in net profit for the June quarter to Rs 4,233 crore against Rs 5,368 crore in the year-ago period, owing to a drop in production.

YES Bank was down nearly 3% after the private banker in a release said it has deferred its plans to raise equity via QIP because of misinterpretation of new QIP guidelines.

SAIL was down over 6% after it reported a net loss for the June 2016 quarter increased to Rs 535 crore compared to Rs 248 crore in the quarter ended June 2015. The loss in June 2016 quarter was mainly on account of an exceptional item after the company paid Rs 54.2 crore towards voluntary retirement compensation during the period.