Markets remain subdued

Markets continue to maintain the subdued trend tracking weak global cues and selling pressure among Metal, Banks and Capital Goods segments.

By 10:30 hrs, the Sensex was down 52 points at 17,388 and the 50-share Nifty slashed down 22 points at 5,252.

From the Metal space, Tata Steel, Sterlite and JSPL have slipped by almost 2% each.

Capital Goods major BHEL is the top Sensex loser, down over 2%. L&T has slipped by over 1%.

Other notable losers include Sun Pharma, NTPC, Tata Power, Wipro, SBI, Cipla and Maruti Suzuki.

Among other shares, Morgan Stanley downgraded Axis Bank to "underweight" from "equal weight" and cut its target price on the stock to Rs 800 from Rs 900, citing rising impairments. The investment bank expects the impaired loan formation of Axis Bank to rise to 4% of total loans in FY14. Axis Bank shares has fallen 2.7% to Rs 951.51.

Torrent Power is trading up 2.5% at Rs 161 extending its previous day’s 7% rally after its promoter hiked their stake in the company by around 1% through open market transaction.

Castrol India is trading lower by over 3% at Rs 275, extending its Tuesday’s 3.2% fall after the stock turned ex-bonus yesterday.

The broader indices are outperforming the benchmark indices – BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are marginally up. The market breadth in BSE remains healthy with 1,275 shares advancing and 757 shares declining.