Markets have closed the trading session on a lower note led by weakness among Reliance Inds and financial shares.
Political instability following TMC, a key UPA ally's decision to withdraw its support to the government also dampened the sentiments.
The Bombay Stock Exchange’s 30-share Sensex provisionally closed at 18,355 down 141 points or 0.76%. The National Stock Exchange’s 50-share S&P CNX Nifty provisionally closed at 5,554 down 46 points or 0.82%.
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Updated at 14:15
Benchmark share indices maintain the subdued activity led by weakness among index heavyweight Reliance Inds, Capital Goods and Banking shares. However, buying demand among IT shares has capped the downslide.
Political instability following TMC, a key UPA ally's decision to withdraw its support to the government also dampened the sentiments.
By 14:15, the 30-share Sensex was at 18,390 down106 points and the 50-share Nifty was at 5,567 down 33 points. The Sensex and the Nifty have touched an intra-day low of 18,292 levels and 5,535 mark, respectively so far.
On the global front, European shares and the euro fell on Thursday after weak Chinese and French data underlined worries about global economic growth, and a promise of extra oil from Saudi Arabia also helped to push crude prices to a six-week low.
European equities opened down 0.6%, helping to keep the MSCI world index 0.7% lower. London's FTSE 100, Paris's CAC-40 and Frankfurt's DAX all opened down and futures prices also pointed to a weak Wall Street open as well.
Back home, the rupee fell to its lowest in nearly a week on Thursday as a key ally of the country's ruling coalition withdrew its support, raising worries the government may roll back key reforms such as the hike in diesel prices.
On the sectoral front, BSE Capital Goods, Metal and power indices have plummeted by almost 2% followed by counters like Oil & Gas, Realty, PSU, Banks, Consumer Durable and Auto, all declining between 0.1-1%. However, BSE IT index has gained over 1%.
From the Capital Goods space, L&T and BHEL have plunged between 2-3.5% on account of profit booking. Capital goods shares witnessed sharp rally during last few trading sessions.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries has declined by over 2%.
Banking and financial shares like ICICI Bank, SBI and HDFC have slipped between 1-2% on account of profit booking. Banking shares witnessed gains during last few trading sessions post the announcement of Monetary Policy where the key rates were kept unchanged whereas the CRR was cut by 1%.
Metals shares like Sterlite, Tata Steel and Hindalco have declined between 1-3%.
Other notable losers include, GAIL, Coal India, NTPC, Hero Moto, Cipla and M&M.
On the gaining side, shares of information technology (IT) companies are in limelight in an otherwise weak market after the Indian Rupee fell against the US Dollar. A weak rupee boosts revenue of IT firms in rupee terms as major companies earn most of their revenues from software exports. TCS is up over 2% whereas Infosys nad Wipro have surged by 1% each.
Other prominent gainers include Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, ONGC, ITC and HDFC Bank.
Among other shares, United Spirits has dropped 1.5% this afternoon on profit taking at higher levels after gaining nearly 6% in the previous four trading sessions.
The BSE-Mid cap Index and the BSE-Small cap are trading weak, both declining by nearly 0.5%.
The market breadth in BSE remains weak with 1,553 declines and 1,083 gainers.
