Weak global cues drag Sensex by nearly 200 pts

Weakness in Asia and Europe dragged domestic benchmark share indices to their day's lows in late noon trades with private banks and capital goods shares leading the decline.

At 2:30PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 188 points at 20,261 and the 50-share Nifty was down 63 points at 6,021.

Asian markets retreated from their recent highs as investors turned cautious booked profits after gains in the previous five straight sessions. The Nikkei which had surged nearly 5% in the previous three sessions ended down 1.8%, the Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite were down 0.5% each while Straits Times which had seen a correction yesterday was trading with marginal gains.

European shares were also trading weak weighed down by profit taking in select bank shares and global food major Nestle. CAC, DAX and FTSE down 0.2-0.4% each.

Moving in line with the equity market, the rupee fell by 19 paise to 62.29 against the American currency in late noon trade today on fresh dollar demand from banks and importers.

BSE Bankex was the top loser among the sectoral indices down 1.4% followed by Oil and Gas, Capital Goods, Metal and Healthcare indices all down over 1% each.

Financials contributed the most to the Sensex decline with HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI HDFC and Axis Bank down 0.4-1.8% each.

In the Oil and Gas segment, ONGC was down over 3% ahead of its third quarter earnings while index heavyweight Reliance Industries was down 0.6% after the Delhi chief minister on Tuesday ordered  the state Anti-corruption Branch to file a case against the company for overpricing of natural gas and underproduction from KG-D6 field.

Cipla was the top Sensex loser down nearly 7% after reporting 17% year-on-year (yoy) fall in consolidated net profit at Rs 284 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2013 (Q3FY14), due to higher cost.  The pharmaceutical company had profit of Rs 340 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

Coal India was down over 3% amid disappointing Q3 earnings. The state owned company reported a decline of 11.4% in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2013 on lower e-auction realisation and quantity.

Capital goods shares were weak after dismal IIP data for December. Dragged down by manufacturing, particularly of consumer durables, industrial production shrank by 0.6 per cent in December 2013 as against 1.3 per cent in November, the third straight month of contraction, official data showed on Wednesday. BHEL and L&T were down 1-2% each.

Among other shares, Eros International Media has moved higher by nearly 6% to Rs 166 after reporting a strong 41.5% year-on-year (yoy) jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 92 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2013 (Q3), on back of strong operational performance. The company had profit of Rs 65 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

The broader markets were also weak with BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices down 0.5-0.8% each.

Market breadth continued to remain weak with 1,570 losers and 865 gainers on the BSE.