 "Markets remain bearish on global economic fears; Infosys outshines")
Markets continue to bleed in the noon session as investors remain unnerved on the economic slowdown in China amid fears of an interest rate hike by the Fed and steep fall in the Indian rupee.
A survey on China's manufacturing sector slumped to a six-and-a-half-year low which further weighed on the sentiments.
At 12:15 PM, the Sensex was down 407 points at 27,201 and the Nifty was down 123 points at 8,249.
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices are down over 1.3% each. Market breadth is weak with 1,872 losers and 575 gainers on the BSE.
In addition, fresh uncertainty is seen in Greece as PM Alexis Tsipras resigned, calling for fresh elections, after his bailout package met with intense opposition from lawmakers which is likely to impact the markets especially the companies with exposure to Europe including Tata Motors, Bharat Forge and Motherson Sumi.
RUPEE
The rupee is trading at its weakest since September 2013 at 65.83 down by 30 paise since China devalued its yuan on August 11 along with weakness in the local equities.
CRUDE
Oil prices resumed their downward trend on Friday pulled lower by weaker global stock markets and a sharp contraction in China's manufacturing activity, with the US benchmark on track for its longest weekly losing streak since 1986.
STOCK TRENDS
On the sectoral front, BSE Metal, Oil & Gas, Power, Realty indices are trading lower between 2-2.5%. However, BSE IT index is up 0.3%.
Oil stock trading lower after global crude oil prices extended losses on concerns that global economic growth slowdown would hurt demand. Reliance Industries, ONGC and GAIL were down 1.2-3.4% . Further, state-owned oil marketing companies such as HPCL, IOC and BPCL were trading 1-2% lower.
In the financial space, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank are down between 2-3% on concerns that demand for additional credit would remain subdued.
Bharti Airtel are down over 1.6%. The company was one of the successful applicants to received payments bank licence.
Maruti Suzuki has increased prices for the first time in 22 months in the range of Rs 3,000 to Rs 9,000 across models, except the newly launched S Cross. However, the stock is down 1%.
IT exporters such as Infosys and TCS are up between 0.3-1% on expectations that the weakeing rupee would boost revenues during the current quarter
Meawnhile, Infosys has launched three new services which, it said, would work as a catalyst in positioning it as a next-generation services company. The three initiatives together would be known as ‘Aikido’, name of a popular Japanese martial art.
Lupin is up 0.6%. The company on Thursday said it has received USFDA approval to market generic version of Teva's Fenofibrate tablets in dosages of 54 mg and 160 mg.
Metal stocks continued to exhibit weakness on fears of demand slowdown from China, the world's largest consumer of metals, on the back of sluggish factory growth. Hindalco, Vedanta and Tata Steel aere down 2.8-3.2%.
Among other shares, state-owned banks witnessed profit taking on worries that payment banks pose a risk to public lenders' market share. State Bank of India (SBI), Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Oriental Bank of Commerce were down 3%-4% each.
Shares of Tata Communications are up 3% in an otherwise weak market on reports stating that two gigantic global firms Google Inc and Amazon are planning to bid for acquiring the telecom and internet service provider's data centre business.
GLOBAL MARKET
Asian markets were trading lower amid weak factory growth from China. The Shanghai Composite was down over 3% while Nikkei, Straits Times and Hang Seng were down over 2% each.
Wall Street cracked with the S&P 500 ending at a more-than-six-month low. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite dropping 2.06% and 2.82 %, respectively, as investors remained wary of the interest rate hike by the Fed amid concerns led by the slowdown in China.