Markets edged lower in afternoon trades this Tuesday on discouraging U.S. factory orders coupled with worries that the political uncertainty could impede the euro zone's efforts to resolve the debt crisis in the region.
At 12:50PM, the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index Sensex fell 79 points to trade at 19,672.25 while the National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty declined 31 points at 5,956.90.
In the results calendar, NHPC, United Breweries Holdings will unveil their Oct-Dec performances later today.
Asian markets traded weak on renewed euro-zone concerns after Spain's opposition party on Sunday called for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to resign over corruption allegations.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng slumped 1.9% to 23,225, Taiwan's Weighted index declined 0.9% to 7,887, Singapore's Straits Times inched down 0.9% to 3,266 while China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.04% to 2,427 and Japan's Nikkei fell 1.9% to 11,046.
Back home, barring healthcare index, rest all dropped with real-estate, consumer durable, capital goods, banks, oil & gas sectors declining most on BSE
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Among key Sensex stocks, Sun Pharmaceuticals gained 3.7% , GAIL was up 1.6% and ONGC rose 0.17% respectively, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto rose 0.5 % and 0.2% on BSE.
Among losers, Dr Reddy's fell 0.5%, BHEL declined 2.8%, Sterlite Industries dropped 2% respectively , ITC dropped 0.9%, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank shed 1.4% and 0.4% respectively on BSE.
The other key notable movers include, Escorts Limited is trading higher by 4.4% to Rs 69.80 after its net profit more than tripled to Rs 28.13 crore for the first quarter ended December 31, 2012 (Q1) due to lower raw material cost. The commercial vehicles maker had made a profit of Rs 9.07 crore in the year ago quarter.
Kingfisher Airlines has dipped 4% to Rs 12.04 after reporting a net loss of Rs 755 crore for the December 2012 (Q3) quarter of the current fiscal mainly due to finance cost of Rs 401 crore and a one-time cost of Rs 275 crore due to re-delivery of aircraft.
Jubilant FoodWorks has plunged almost 8% to Rs 1,045 extending its previous day’s 5.2% fall on NSE after reporting a lowest 16.1% year-on-year (YoY) growth in same store sales (SSS) in last 13 quarters during the third quarter ended December 31, 2012 (Q3)
The broader markets traded weak with mid-caps and small-caps falling 1% on BSE.
The market breadth is negative. Out of 2,623 stocks traded, 1,806 stocks declined compared to 714 advances on BSE.