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Markets edged lower in late morning trades as weakness in heavyweights like Infosys, Reliance Industries and private banks weighed. At 1120 hrs, the Sensex was down 59 points at 28,279 and the Nifty sipped lower by 20 points to trade at 8,443.
Analysts are attributing the weakness to the derivate expiry tomorrow. The next trigger for the market would be how the winter session transpires, they add.
However, the broader markets were back on the outperformance track with the smallcap index up 0.7% and the midcap index gained 0.4%. Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark index was down 0.2%.
On the sectoral front, Auto, Bankex, Health Care and IT indices were the only pockets of weakness with the indices down 0.2-0.7%.
On the other hand, Realty and Power indices were up a percent each.
From the auto space, Bajaj Auto was the top loser after Nigeria's central bank devalued the naira by 8 percent and raised interest rates sharply on Tuesday. Nearly 12% of Bajaj Auto's revenues come from Nigeria - analysts. Maurti and Tata Motors down 0.8% each were the other losers from this space.
The other stock in red on account of this news was Bharti Airtel down 1.2% as Nigeria is Bharti Airtel's biggest market in Africa.
Among the banks, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank was down 0.7-1.4%. SBI was flat with a positive bias.
IT scrips Infosys, TCS and Wipro were lower by 0.2-0.5%.
Metal names like Hindalco and Tata Steel were down 1% and 0.1% respectively. While, Sesa Sterlite was up 1.2%.
FMCG was a mixed bag with ITC up 1.5%, having recovered from yesterday's slump as analysts do not see the new restrictions on the sale of cigarettes materially affecting the company's revenues. The stock was among the top Sensex gainers. However, HUL was down 0.3%.
Tata Power gained 0.8% on Central Electricity Regulatory Commission passing the Tariff Order for the 1050 MW power plant of Maithon Power Limited, a joint venture between Tata Power and Damodar Valley Corporation. This will pave the way for meeting the targeted returns from the project.
GAIL, Cipla, BHEL, NTPC and Coal India up 0.7-3% were the other major gainers.
In individual names, Camphor & Allied Products soared 14% to Rs 366, extending its previous day’s nearly 4% gain on BSE, after the company said it has entered in to a multi-year manufacturing and supply agreement for the manufacture of fragrance ingredient intermediates and finished products with US-based International Flavours and Fragrances Inc.
Greenply Industries was locked in lower circuit, down 14% to Rs 948 on BSE after the stock turned ex-demerger today.
The market breadth was positive on BSE. 1,362 stocks advanced while 1,110 stocks declined.
