Markets extend losses; Nifty nears 7,830

Markets extended losses in noon trades as gains in select index heavyweights failed to offset losses in IT and pharma shares.

At 12:10PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 80 points at 26,192 and the 50-share Nifty was down 21 points at 7,832.

Infosys, TCS and Wipro were down 2.5-3.9% each contributing the most to the Sensex losses.

In the pharma pack, Cipla, Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy's Labs were down 2.5-3.2% each.

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(Updated at 11:35AM)

Benchmark shares indices continued to trade flat in late morning trades as gains in index heavyweights helped offset losses in defensive pharma and technology shares.

At 11:35AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 29 points at 26,301 and the 50-share Nifty was up 11 points at 7,863.

The Indian rupee is trading lower against the US dollar at Rs 61.48 compared to the previous close of Rs 61.43. Weakness in domestic stocks are offset by the encouraging growth forecast for India from the International Monetary Fund.

Indian economy is likely to grow by 6.4% in 2015-16 compared with 5.6% in 2014-15, the World Bank said in its bi-annual South Asia Economic Focus report.

Over the next year or so economic growth should be supported by the recovering US economy that would provide a market for Indian merchandise and service exports, the report said.

Asian markets continued to trade weak amid growth concerns in China, the world's second largest economy. Shares in Japan witnessed a sell-off dropping to a five-week amid global growth concerns while the appreciating yen also dampened sentiment for exporters' stocks. The benchmark Nikkei was down 1%, Hang Seng slipped 0.8% and Straits Times dropped 0.4%^. However, China's Shanghai Composite was up 0.5%.

BSE IT and Healthcare were the top sectoral losers down 1.7-2.2% each. Capital Goods index was up 1.9% followed Oil and Gas, Bankex, Auto and FMCG among others.

IT major Infosys was down nearly 3% on reports that Citi downgraded the stock to 'neutral' from 'buy' earlier ahead of its second quarter earnings due on Friday. The note says that shares are trading around 17x 1-year forward earnings adding that "positives are adequately discounted". Among other shares, TCS and Wipro were down 1.8-2.5% each. Tech Mahindra was down over 4% after it downgraded it to 'sell' from 'neutral'.

Pharma shares also witnessed profit taking at higher levels. Sun Pharma, Cipla and Dr Reddy's Labs were down over 2.5% each.

Among the index heavyweights, ITC was up 0.9% while Reliance Industries gained nearly 1% and ONGC was up 1.4%.

Banks which are a proxy to the economy gained on the back of encouraging growth forecast for India by the World Bank. ICICI Bank, SBI, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank were up 0.4-1.4% each.

Capital goods shares were among the top gainers with L&T up over 2% after after the company said its wholly-owned subsidiary L&T Technology Services received approval from the Competition Commission of India to acquire the engineering business of US-based Dell Product and Process Innovation Services. BHEL rebounded after its recent correction and was up nearly 3%.

Among other shares, KEC International was up over 2% after the company announced that it has secured new orders worth Rs 1,029 crore.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.1% and the Small-cap index was up 0.3%.

Market breadth was strong with 1,261 gainers and 1,107 losers on the BSE.