Sensex loses nearly 100 points; HDFC down 2%

Coal India, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma and ICICI Bank have declined the most

Benchmark indices have remained subdued, amid range bound trading, with the losses in select index heavyweights like HDFC and ICICI Bank weighing the most on markets.
 
At 10:27AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 102 points at 29,455 and the 50-share Nifty was down 29 points at 8,885.
 
Yesterday, the Sensex touched its new all-time high level of 29,786.32 and Nifty reached its fresh record-high level of 8,985.05 in today’s session.
 

In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap index, up 0.1% and Smallcap index, up 0.2%, have performed better than the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE is marginally positive with 1,086 advances against 932 declines.    

 
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 1,723 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.  
 
Buzzing Stocks
 
10 of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in red. BSE Metal index has lost over 1% and is the top loser followed by BSE Bankex, down 0.4%.  BSE Realty index, up 1.3% is the lead gainer followed by BSE Oil & Gas index, down 0.5%.
 
Financials are weighing on the markets today. HDFC, ICICI Bank, SBI and Axis Bank have declined over 0.4 to 2.3% each.  Housing finance major, HDFC has lost 2.3% ahead of its third-quarter results due later today.

 
HDFC Bank has gained over 1%. The company has announced plans to raise Rs 10,000 crore through share sale.
 
ONGC has declined around 1.4%. Oil slipped to $49 a barrel on Wednesday after an industry report said US crude stocks rose the most in two decades last week, and as a firmer dollar added to pressure on prices.
 
RIL is trading higher by 1.3%. According to media reports, RIL has won the contract to supply diesel to the Indian Railways replacing Indian Oil Corporation.
 
Coal India has declined close to 4% ahead of the government's 5% stake sale by the Offer-for-Sale route by the government tomorrow.

 
Tata Steel is down by 0.7%.  Tata Steel will soon start operation of its Sukinda chromite mine in Jajpur district following the third renewal of the mining lease by the state government recently.
 
Tata Power has declined 0.5%. The company has entered into a binding understanding with NELCO to purchase NELCO’s defence business for about Rs 8.3 crore.
 
Bharti Airtel has declined around 2.4%. The Cabinet on Wednesday approved a base price of Rs 3,705 crore per megahertz (MHz) for 3G spectrum auction, a move which would help the government garner over Rs 1 lakh crore along with sale of other mobile frequencies.

 
Maruti Suzuki has declined around 0.3%. The company has laid the foundation for its third manufacturing site at Hansalpur near Mehsana, around 100 km from Ahmedabad and 60 km from the auto hub of Sanand.