)
Benchmark indices have reached near day’s low weighed down by IT and banking shares.
By 1300, Sensex plunged by 228 points at 18,577, and the Nifty down 76 points or 1.34% at 5,597 levels.
On the global front, Nikkei remained in green - up 0.8% at 12,469. Hang Seng,Kospi and Shanghai Composite however slipped 0.1-1.2% each.
Back home, the rupee today lost 16 paise to 54.59 against the dollar in early trade on the Interbank Foreign Exchange due to continued capital outflows and increased demand from importers for the US currency.
On the sectoral front, BSE Realty, IT, TECk and Bankex indices have plunged by 2% each followed by counters like Consumer Durable, Power, Capital Goods and Metal, all falling down by 1% each.
Software shares were down tracking weak economic data from the US on Wednesday. Software majors earn most of their revenues from exports to the US. TCS and Infosys were down over 2% each.
Banking and financial shares like ICICI Bank, HDFC, HDFC Bank and SBI have fallen between 1-3%.
Other notable losers include Tata Steel, Sterlite, JSPL, BHEL, Hero Moto and Hindalco.
Among other shares, Tata Communications is trading higher by 2.3% at Rs 235, bouncing back almost 5% from intra-day’s low after a Tata Group company said that it has completed a sale transaction of the land parcel and building situated at Nungambakkam, Chennai, for a transaction value of Rs 192.30 crore.
The market breadth in BSE remains weak with 1,565 shares declining and 832 shares advancing.
