Sensex falls over 100 points; GAIL, Vedanta down 3%

Benchmark indices continue to trade lower weighed down by selling pressure among financials, metal and oil shares. Further, global markets are witnessing weak trend as Greece and its international creditors yet again failed to sign a truce.

At 11:45 AM, the Sensex was at 27,769 levels, down by 128 points or 0.46% while the Nifty was at 8,367 levels, down by 31 points.

The broader markets are, however outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap index is flat and the Small index is up 0.4%.

The market breadth is negative, with 1,134 declines against 1,058 advances on the BSE.

The rupee declined by 3 paise to 63.65 against the US dollar in trade today, extending weakness for the second day, at the Interbank Foreign Exchange due to appreciation of the American currency overseas.

Meanwhile, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has asked central banks from across the world to define "new rules of the game" as he warned that the global economy may be slipping into problems similar to the Great Depression of the 1930s.

GLOBAL MARKETS

China stocks tumbled more than 4% on Friday as spooked investors dumped shares as regulators cracked down on risky margin trading and on mounting uncertainty over the direction of Beijing's monetary policy.

The plunge in mainland shares for a second straight day also weighed on the Hong Kong market, which was already under pressure from weak regional and global markets as Greece failed again to reach an agreement with its creditors.

By midday, the CSI300 index was down 3.8% at 4,525.76 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index tanked 6.4% to 4,253 points.

SECTORS & BUZZING STOCKS

Sectors like Banks, Capital Goods, Metal, Power and Realty have plunged by 1% each. However, BSE IT and Consumer Durables indices are up over 1%.

The top losers from the Sensex pack are GAIL, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Vedanta and BHEL.

Financials are reeling under selling pressure after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised concerns that while risks to India's banking sector have moderated marginally since September 2014, worries remain over the continued weakness in asset quality indicated by the rising trend in stressed advances ratio of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs), especially of public sector banks (PSBs).

ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, HDFC and HDFC Bank are down 0.5- 2% on the Sensex.

Shares of GAIL and BHEL are down 1.3- 1.5% on account of profit-booking as these shares were among the top 5 gainers on the Sensex yesterday.

IT shares are trading higher on depreciating rupee. Infosys, TCS and Wipro have gained between 1-2%.

Among other shares, SRF has moved higher by 7% to Rs 1,199, also their lifetime highs on the BSE, in an otherwise subdued market.

Shares of Welspun Corp were trading higher by 4% to Rs 97, extending their previous day’s 9% rally on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), after the promoter of the construction & engineering firm increased their stake in the company via open market purchase.

Mastek has rallied 19% to Rs 209, extending their 16% gains in the past three trading sessions on the BSE, after the company said that shareholders of Cover-All Technologies have approved its merger with Majesco — the US-based subsidiary of Mastek.

With Reuters input