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Benchmark shares indices extended losses, amid weak Asian cues, as investor booked profit in financials and index heavyweights ITC and Reliance Industries leading the decline.
At 10:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 222 points at 20,413 and the 50-share Nifty wasd down 73 points at 6,050.
Asian markets except Japan were trading lower on the back of weak manufacturing data from China and worries over US Fed stimulus tapering. Shares in Japan were trading higher on the back of weaker yen. The Nikkei was up 1.3%. Among other indices in the region, Shanghai Composite, Straits Times and Hang Seng were down 0.5-1% each.
The Indian rupee continued to remain weak against the US dollar after the US Fed's minutes of the October meeting signalled that it would start winding down its monetary stimulus measures sooner-than-expected. The rupee was at Rs 62.87 to the US dollar compared to Wednesday's close of 62.67.
The BSE Bankex was the top loser among the sectoral indices down 1.5% followed by Oil and Gas, Capital Goods, POwer, Realty, Auto and FMCG among others.
Financial shares extended losses amid profit taking. HDFC Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank and SBI were down 1.4-2% each.
Among the index heavyweights Reliance Ind was down 1.3% on reports that the company has been fined $792 million for producing less than natural gas from its eastern offshore KG-D6 block.
ITC was down 2.1% contributing the most to the Sensex losses.
Other Sensex losers include Infosys, Sun Pharma and L&T among others.
Gail India was the top Sensex gainer up 0.8% on reports that the commpany plans to enter LNG business and acquiring upstream assets in Tanzania.
Among other shares, Uttam Galva Steels has surged nearly 8% to Rs 74 on back of heavy volumes on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The stock opened at Rs 61.50 and touched high of Rs 75.20 so far. Around 2.43 million shares have already changed hands so far on the counter compared to less than 100,000 shares that were traded daily in past two weeks.
Future Retail has dipped nearly 5% to Rs 75.55 after the National Stock Exchange (NSE) decided to remove the stock from future and options (F&O) contract from January 31, 2014 onwards.Accordingly, no contracts shall be available for trading in the above mentioned security with effect from January 31, 2014, it added.
The broader market also extended losses. The Mid-cap index was down 0.5% and the Small-cap index was down 0.4%.
Market breadth was negative with 963 declines and 618 gainers on the BSE.
