Sensex down over 300 pts; IT drags

Weakness in TCS and Infosys, Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank weigh on the indices

Markets continued to trade in the negative territory with the benchmark indices down over 1% each ahead of IIP and August retail inflation numbers expected today. The ones weighing on the indices were IT majors TCS and Infosys, Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank.

At 1450 hrs, the Sensex was down 280 points at 19,718 and the Nifty slipped 83 points to trade at 5,829.

In the broader markets, the smallcap index was up 0.4% and the midcap index was flat with a positive bias in noon deals, outperforming the BSE benchmark index which was down over 1%.

The rupee weakened in afternoon trade due to dollar demand from oil importers and defense related payments. At 1420 hrs, the rupee was trading at Rs 63.59 compared with previous close of Rs 63.37 per dollar.

Global Markets

Asian shares surrendered earlier gains while the dollar remained under pressure on Thursday, facing growing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve's impending stimulus reduction might be smaller than some had believed.

The waning likelihood of an immediate U.S. military strike on Syria also continued to undermine the dollar as diplomatic efforts to place Syria's chemical weapons under international control intensified.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.2%.

A stronger yen and downbeat economic data helped push Japan's Nikkei stock average down 0.3%.

European stocks were in the red with DAX and FTSE flat with a negative bias while CAC was down 0.3%.

Sectors & Stocks

On the sectoral front, only Realty and FMCG indices were in the positive territory with gains of 0.4% and 0.2% respectively.

Among the ones in the red, Consumer Durables, Metal, IT, Bankex, Teck, Oil & Gas, Auto and PSU indices extended losses and were down 1-2%.

Hero MotoCorp, Tata Steel, BHEL and Coal India down 3% each were the major losers in the noon deals.

ONGC, Hindalco, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever, TCS, Sesa Goa, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank down 2-2.7% were the other prominent losers.

Reliance Industries and SBI were down 1% each.

The only gainers among the Sensex-30 were Tata Power, NTPC, ITC, Gail India, Cipla and HDFC up 1-4%.

The market breadth was marginally positive. 1,193 stocks advanced while 1,072 stocks declined on the BSE.