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Markets continue to trade in the red, as weakness in financials and IT major, TCS weighed on the indices.
At 1140 hrs, the Sensex was down 15 points at 17,890 and the Nifty was down 12 points at 5,290. At the same time, the Rupee was quoting at 65.51 to a Dollar.
In the broader markets, the midcap index slipped 0.7% and the smallcap index was down 0.3%, both underperforming the BSE benchmark index which was marginally sown by 0.1%.
So far, The Sensex has touched a high of 18,007 and a low of 17,759.
Asian Markets
Asian markets were under pressure as a spike in U.S. bond yields drove up borrowing costs globally, and even surprisingly strong data from China couldn't completely staunch the bleeding.
Emerging markets again bore the brunt of the selling as many have come to rely on cheap dollars to underpin domestic demand and fund current account deficits. Currencies in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand all hit multi-year lows, while the Indian rupee ploughed another historic trough.
Their stocks markets likewise all fell between 1 and 2%, while the MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 1.1% to a six-week low.
Japan's Nikkei fared somewhat better with a loss of only 0.6%, while Shanghai was uscathed thanks to an upbeat reading on Chinese manufacturing.
Rupee
The rupee fell to a record low in morning trades, falling past 65 to a dollar, continuing its sharp slide among emerging market currencies after the Federal Reserve minutes hinted that the United States may start tapering its stimulus as early as next month.
The currency fell to as low as 65.12 to a dollar, breaching its previous low of 64.5450 hit on Wednesday.
Sectors & Stocks
Among the sectoral indices, Auto, Capital Goods, Power, Bankex and Realty indices were down 0.3-3.5%. Meanwhile, IT and FMCG were flat.
Metal, Consumer Durables, Oil & Gas, PSU and Health Care indices were the only ones in the green, up 0.1-1.9%.
Metal names - Tata Steel, Sterlite, Jindal Steel ad Hindalco up 1.4-4.6% were the top gainers among the Sensex-30.
ONGC, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, Tata Power, Dr Reddys Lab and Sun Pharma up 1-3.6% were the other notable gainers.
Among the ones in the red were financials like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC and SBI down 1-2.6%.
Auto majors -Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp, too were in the red, down 0.6-3.2%
NTPC, Coal India, TCS, Gail India and L&T lost 0.2-1.9%
The market breadth was negative. 1,012 stocks declined while 718 stocks advanced on the BSE.
