Sensex down 150 points, Nifty below 9,150 as telecom, IT stocks fall

The benchmark indices on Monday continued to trade lower tracking muted trend seen in Asian markets, while back home losses in the stock of Idea Cellular pulled the Nifty index down. 

At 1:30 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 29,496, down 152 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 9,122, down 38 points. 

In the broader market, BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap outperformed the frontline indices to gain 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned negative from positive. On the BSE, 1,224 shares declined and 1,199 shares rose. A total of 180 shares were unchanged.

Shares of Idea Cellular turned volatile and was the leading Nifty loser after the company said its board has approved the scheme of amalgamation of Vodafone India and its wholly owned subsidiary Vodafone Mobile Services with the company. 

The stock rallied 15% to Rs 124 in the early trade only to crack over 12% to Rs 95 as the session progressed. 

Shares of IT companies plunged on reports that Cognizant may reduce at least 10,000 jobs, representing 5% of its total workforce, as the company looks to shift its focus from traditional IT services to digital. 

Largecap IT stocks such as Infosys, TCS and Wipro shed up to 2% on the BSE. 

Among gainers, shares of tyre companies were trading higher in the range of 1% to 3% after media report suggested that the Commerce Ministry will meet on March 28, to discuss anti dumping duty.

MRF, Balkrishna Industries, TVS Srichakra, Ceat, Apollo Tyres, Goodyear India and JK Tyre & Industries were up 1% to 3% as compared to 0.47% decline in the S&P BSE Sensex at 11:15 am.in an otherwise weak market. 

Poly Medicure surged 10% to Rs 633, extending its two-session long gains of 9% after the company fixed March 28, 2017 as record date for the 1:1 bonus issue. The stock will turn ex-bonus on March 24, 2017.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet has approved four bills to implement a planned Goods and Services Tax (GST) bills, a government official said on Monday, paving the way for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to implement the landmark tax reform from July.

The four bills are likely to be taken up by Parliament this week, and a separate state GST bill in state assemblies later, the official also said, requesting anonymity ahead of a planned news briefing.

(With inputs from Reuters)