Benchmark share indices ended lower on Wednesday amid profit taking in index heavyweight Reliance Industries and ITC after the Sensex surged yesterday to end at a 4-month closing high. Weak cues from Europe also dampened investor sentiment.
The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended down 128 points at 17,490 and the 50-share Nifty ended down 42 points at 5,303.
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(Updated at 14:16 hrs)
Markets extended losses in late noon trade, amid weak cues from Europe, as software majors pared early gains while index heavyweights Reliance Industries and ITC continue to witness profit taking.
At 2:15PM, the Sensex was down 129 points at 17,490 and the Nifty slipped 36 points to 5,309.
European shares were trading lower on Wednesday on worries that the sluggish global economy may hurt earnings. The CAC-40, DAX and the FTSE-100 were down 0.4%-0.8% each.
Asian shares were trading mixed. Japan's Nikkei share average eased to a two-week low on Wednesday, crucially holding just above its 25-day moving average, with profit warnings from U.S. firms viewed as a bad omen ahead of Japan's upcoming earning season.The Nikkei ended down 0.1% while the Hang Seng, Shanghai Composite and Straits Times were up 0.1%-0.7% each.
Among the sectoral indices on the BSE, Auto, Realty, FMCG, Oil and Gas were the top losers down over 1% each.
Auto shares witnessed profit taking after recent gains following encouraging sales growth of 8.3% in June compared to the same month last year. Tata Motors was the top loser down 2.2%. Other losers include, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, Hero Motocorp and Mahindra & Mahindra.
FMCG shares were down on concerns that lower agri output in the wake on deficient rainfall would lead to higher input costs. ITC and Hindustan Unilever were both down over 1% each.
In the banking segment, ICICI Bank was down 0.9% while HDFC Bank slipped 0.5%.
Further, Infosys which was up over 1% in early trades pared some of the gains and was up 0.5% ahead of its quarterly numbers due tomorrow. The board of the company is likely to announce share buyback plan in tomorrow’s board meeting. TCS which was also among the gainers was down 0.2%. The software major will also announce its results on July 12.
The broader market was mixed with the BSE Mid-cap index was flat with positive bias while Small-cap index was down 0.1%.
The market breadth continued to remain weak with 1,539 losers and 1,119 gainers on the BSE.