Sensex falls 200 points, Nifty below 8,150; ITC, banks drag

Benchmark indices have exyended losses on account of profit taking among defensive and financial shares.

Barring China, all the major Asian peers are trading lower with Japanese equities hitting the skids on weak data.

By 11:55 am, the Sensex was lower by 212 points at 26,824 and the Nifty dipped 56 points at 8,121.

The broader markets are trading mixed. BSE Midcap index is marginally positive and the Smallcap index has dipped by 0.4%.

Market breadth is slightly positive on the BSE with 1,112 shares advancing and 1,005 shares declining.

In the currency front, the rupee depreciated 18 paise to 65.13 against the dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange in early trade today on buying of the US currency by importers.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Chinese stocks surged on Thursday after a week-long break as they tried catching up to a global rally, while most regional markets stepped back with Japanese equities hitting the skids on weak data.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.3%. The index was on track to snap a 6-day winning streak that took it to a 1-1/2 month peak this week, propelled by a global surge in risk appetite as expectations of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates this year ebbed.

Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 soared to a 3-week high thanks to a bounce in biotechnology companies. Materials shares also enjoyed a positive session on the back of gains for precious metals.

SECTORS & STOCKS

Defensive sectors like FMCG and Pharma are under pressure on account of profit-booking after witnessing decent buying demand recently.

ITC and Lupin are top Sensex losers, down between 1-2%.

From the financial space, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and HDFC have plunged between 0.4-1%.

Bank shares witnessed significant rally in last few trading sessions after the RBI surprised the street with 50 bps rate cut.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has declined 1%. The company announced that global credit rating agency Moody's Investors Services has assigned Baa3 foreign currency and local currency issuer rating with stable outlook to the company.

Other notable losers are Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto, NTPC, L&T and Cipla.

On the gaining side, Tata Steel, which will commission a 3 million tonne steel plant in Kalinganagar by December, plans to scale up its operations gradually. Also, Tata Steel said its subsidiary in the UK and the trustee of the British Steel Pension Scheme had concluded the triennial actuarial valuation of the scheme.  Shares of Tata Steel are up almost 2%.

IT shares are trading positive on account of depreciating rupee. Infosys and Wipro are up almost 1% each.

Other gainers from the Sensex pack include Vedanta, BHEL, Hindalco, Dr Reddy’s Labs and Tata Motors.

SMART MOVERS

Man Industries has surged 7% to Rs 112 on the BSE after the company announced that it has received orders worth approximately Rs 700 crore from international and domestic customers for supply of pipes for oil, gas and water sector projects.

Shares of Genesys International Corporation has locked in upper circuit of 20% at Rs 69.30 on the BSE after the company announced that Quikr, an online cross-category classifieds company, is making an investment in Genesys' venture A.N.Virtual World Tech Ltd.

3i Infotech has surged over 5% after the company said it has allotted 1.69 crore equity shares of the company at a conversion price of Rs 19.74 per share on a preferential allotment basis to DBS Bank, one of the CDR lenders.


With Reuters input