Markets closed for the day in the red with both the benchmark indices down nearly 1% each. The Senesx was down 191 points at 19,796 and the Nifty gave up 59 points to close at 5,997.
_______________
(Updated at 1419hrs)
Markets continue to languish in the red as rate sensitives continue to weigh on the benchmark indices. At 14hrs, the Sensex was down 76 points at 19,911 and the Nifty lost 28 points to trade around 6,029.
Interest rate-sensitive fell as the Reserve Bank of India Governor D Subbarao stated that India's inflation has come off a peak but is still high, a comment that is likely to cool expectations for a rate cut later this month.
In Asia, shares fell on Wednesday as cautious investors waited for crucial economic data from China later this week, while the yen's extended gains spurred profit taking in Japanese equities after their recent rally.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei average shed 2.6% for its largest daily decline in eight months, sharply reversing Tuesday's rally. The other major losers were Shanghai Composite and Taiwan Weighted down 0.7-0.8%.
Back home, in the broader markets, the midcap index slipped 0.7% and the smallcap index dropped 0.6%, both underperforming the Sensex, down 0.4%.
On the sectoral front, auto, metal, banks, capital goods, down 0.7-1% were the major losers in the noon deals. The only ones in the green were oil&gas, consumer durables and health care indices which added 0.2-0.8%.
All the major auto scrips were in the red. Tata Motors slipped nearly 3% after the company said that its global sales in December 2012 declined by 13.88% to 98,968 units against 114,920 units sold during the corresponding month in 2011.
Bajaj Auto too slipped around 3% after reporting almost 100 basis point (bps) drop in operating margin for the third quarter ended December 2012 as compared to the previous corresponding period.
Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki down 2.5% each were the other major losers.
In the financial space, SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC and HDFC Bank gave off 0.4-1%.
Metal names like Jindal Steel, Hindalco and Tata Steel slipped 1-3%.
Some of the other losers among the Sensex-30 were BHEL, Tata Power, Sun Pharma, ONGC, Infosys and Hindustan Unilever down 1% each.
Among the gainers were index heavyweight, Reliance Industries ahead of its Q3 numbers, Dr Reddys Lab, TCS and Sterlite up 1-2.6%.
In other stocks, Strides Arcolab over 3% to Rs 1,095, extending its over 3% gain in past two-days, on reports that Pfizer Inc is among other companies in race to buy the company’s injectable-medicines unit Agila Specialties.
Essar Oil added over 1% at Rs 74 after reporting a net profit of Rs 32 crore for the third quarter ended December 2012 against a loss of Rs 362 crore in year ago quarter, on back of improved margins.
Orient Refractories shot up 5.5% at Rs 38.75, after the Dutch firm Dutch US Holding B.V. made an open offer to acquire additional 26% stake in the company at price of Rs 43 per share.
The market breadth was negative. 1821 stocks declined while 994 stocks advanced on the BSE.