Key equity indices extended losses and hit fresh intraday low in mid-afternoon trade as bluechips like Reliance Industries, HDFC and Infosys came under selling pressure. At 14:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 545.02 points or 1.57% at 34,234.56. The Nifty 50 index was down 178.90 points or 1.71% at 10,274.15.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 1.39%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 1.85%.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On BSE, 673 shares rose and 1795 shares fell. A total of 161 shares were unchanged.
Housing finance stocks slumped. PNB Housing Finance (down 17.64%), Indiabulls Housing Finance (down 15.09%), Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (down 9.82%), GRUH Finance (down 4.52%), LIC Housing Finance (down 2.09%), Can Fin Homes (down 0.3%) and GIC Housing Finance (down 0.18%), edged lower.
Index heavyweight and housing finance major HDFC fell 3.46% to Rs 1,676.15.
Index heavyweight and IT major Infosys fell 3.19% to Rs 682.
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Reliance Industries (RIL) lost 5.07% after the company declared Q3 result after market hours on Wednesday, 17 October 2018. RIL's consolidated net profit rose 17.93% to Rs 9549 crore on 54.11% rise in total income to Rs 144574 crore in Q2 September 2018 over Q2 September 2017.
Operating profit before other income and depreciation increased by 35.6% to Rs 21108 crore in Q2 September 2018 over Q2 September 2017. Record operating performance was led by significant volume growth and margin improvement in petrochemicals business and multi-fold growth in contribution from Retail and Digital Services businesses.
Commenting on the results, Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, RIL said that the company's integrated refining and petrochemicals business generated strong cash flows in a period of heightened volatility in commodity and currency markets.
RIL announced the strategic investments of primary investment of Rs 2045 crore through a preferential issue and secondary purchase of Rs 245 crore from the existing promoters for a 66% stake in Den Networks and primary investment of Rs 2940 crore through a preferential issue for a 51.3% stake in Hathway Cable and Datacom. These investments and partnerships will create a win-win outcome for the Local Cable Operators (LCOs), Consumers, Content providers and overall eco-system, RIL said.
Overseas, European stocks were trading lower, extending Thursday's losses. Stocks in Asia were mixed on Friday after China's GDP growth for the third quarter of 2018 came in below expectations. Issues ranging from trade worries, Italy's 2019 budget and higher US interest rates also worried investors.
China's economic growth slowed to the weakest pace since the first quarter of 2009 as the country's trade war with the US puts pressure on growth, according to official data released on Friday. The world's second-largest economy said its economy grew 6.5% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2018. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, China's economy grew 1.6%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
US stocks closed sharply lower Thursday, dogged by worries about global growth and as investors continued to weigh minutes of the Federal Reserve's September meeting, which were viewed as hawkish.
The minutes of the Fed's September meeting, released on Wednesday, indicated that policy makers are prepared to forge ahead with increases and will likely hike rates again as early as December, as expected.
On the data front, first-time jobless claims fell by 5,000 from a week ago, as the Labor Department reported just 210,000 Americans applying for initial jobless benefits in the week ending 13 October 2018, close to 49-year lows.
The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index came in slightly below last month's reading, with a print of 22.2 in October, compared with 22.9 in September. The Conference Board said its leading economic indicators rose 0.5% in September.
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