Benchmark share indices ended lower on Wednesday, amid a report by Standard & Poor which lowered India’s credit rating to negative from stable, weighed down by profit booking in software majors TCS and Wipro.
The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended down 37 points at 17,171 and the 50-share Nifty ended down 21 points at 5,201.
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(Updated at 14:11 hrs)
Markets have recovered from day lows on firm opening of the European markets. Earlier in the day the markets fell over 1% following a Standard & Poor report which downgraded India to 'negative' from 'stable'.
The report said that investment and economic growth slowed, current account deficit widened and expects government to face headwinds in implementing policy measures.
The Sensex was down 71 points at 17,136 while the Nifty was down 21 points at 5,202. The Sensex touched an intra-low of 17,019 and the Nifty touched an intra-day low of 5,161.
On the global front, Japan's Nikkei share average climbed 1% to snap four straight days of losses, boosted by decent US corporate results and an easing yen, though appetite for risk was tempered by political uncertainty in Europe and ahead of key central bank meetings.
The dollar hit an intraday high of 81.6 yen after strong earnings from US companies including Apple Inc, temporarily pushing the Nikkei to 9,643.27, above its 13-week moving average of 9.630.08.
Meanwhile, European markets have opened firm with CAC, DAX and FTSE gaining by nearly 1% each.
Back home, software shares Wipro is down 7%, TCS slipped 1% after recent gains post fourth quarter earnings while Infosys is trading marginally.
BSE Consumer Durable index has plummeted by almost 2%. Titan Inds, Gitanjali Gems, Whirlpool and TTK Prestige have declined between 1-2%.
Capital Goods major L&T and BHEL have declined between 1-2%.
On the gaining side, Bharti Airtel is the top Sensex gainer, up over 2%. Other notable gainers include Sterlite, Hero Moto, Maruti Auzuki, HDFC Bank and Bajaj Auto.
Market breadth on the BSE remains unhealthy with 1,675 declines and 897 advances.
