Sensex drops 100 points; Index heavyweights drag

Benchmark indices declined in the noon trades owing to weakness in Index heavyweights including HDFC twins, TCS and ONGC among others. Also, traders remained wary ahead of December month F&O contract expiry later in the day.

At 12PM, the 30-share Sensex is down 142 points at 27,364 and the 50-share Nifty  has lost 39 points to trade at 8,228.

NTPC, Hindalco, HDFC, ONGC and BHEL are the top 5 losers on the BSE and are down between 1.5-2.5%.

___________________________________________________

(updated at 10.50 AM)
Benchmark indices remain volatile in late morning trade subdued by the fresh selling in select financials and sustained weakness in metal and oil shares.  Investors have remained cautious ahead of December month F&O expiry later today.
 
At 10:50AM, the 30-share Sensex and the 50-share Nifty were flat at the mark of 27,490 and 8,264 respectively.
 
In the broader market, BSE midcap index has performed better than the front-liners with a gain of around 0.2% while the BSE smallcap index is largely in-line with its larger peers. Market breadth in BSE is slightly positive with 1,110 advances against 996 declines.
 
Meanwhile, selling by foreign institutional investors continued unabated and they were net sellers in Indian equities worth Rs 444.93 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
 
The rupee is trading lower at 63.44 versus Tuesday's close of 63.28. The dollar index is trading above the key 90 level for the first time since March 2006 after strong US and UK economic data. Month-end dollar demand from oil companies is also hurting the Indian unit.
 
Buzzing Stocks
 
BSE Realty index, up 0.8% is the biggest gainer among sectoral indices followed by BSE FMCG and Capital Goods indices, up 0.2% each. BSE Power, Metal and Oil & Gas indices, down around 0.5% each, have lost the most.
 
Coal India has gained over 1%. On Tuesday, the company received in-principle approval from its board to form two joint ventures to revive FCIL’s Talcher urea plant in Odisha.
 
Pharma shares are under pressure with Dr Reddys Labs emerging as the biggest loser with a loss of over 1%. Sun Pharma has shed around 0.4% while Cipla is trading marginally weak after paring early gains.
 
IT shares are trading mixed. Infosys has gained around 0.5% while Wipro and TCS have lost around 0.5% each.
 
Financials are trading subdued. HDFC twins have lost around 0.5%. SBI and Axis Bank  are trading marginally lower while ICICI Bank has gained around 0.4%.
 
NTPC has lost over 2% on profit-booking after strong gains made yesterday.  Metal stocks are under pressure. Sesa Sterlite and Hindalco have lost around 1% and 2% each while Tata Steel is down 0.7%.
 
Oil and gas shares are subdued. ONGC has declined around 1%. GAIL and RIL are trading marginally weak.
 
Among other shares, real estate developer Sobha has rallied 5% after a foreign investor Platinum Investment Management Limited acquired over 300,000 shares of the company through open market.