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Markets slipped into the red in noon deals as weakness in heavyweights like HDFC twins, L&T, Tata Motors and RIL weighed on the indices. At 1300 hrs, the Sensex was down 69 points well below the 28,000 mark at 27,962 and the Nifty slipped 16 points to trade at 8,366.
The broader markets were no different with both the mid and smallcap indices in red. The smallcap index dipped 0.6% and the midcap index was off 0.3%, both underperforming the BSE benchmark index which was down 0.2% in early noon trades.
On the sectoral front, Realty, Power, Metal, Capital Goods and Consumer Durables indices were down 1-2%.
Meanwhile, defensive pockets like IT, Health Care and FMCG indices were up 0.1-1%.
The top losers among the Sensex-30 were BHEL, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank and GAIL down 1.3-3%.
Pharma names like Dr Reddys, Sun Pharma and Cipla up 0.2-2.6% were among the gainers of the hour. Cipla gained after the company agreed to market paediatric vaccines made by Serum Institute of India in Europe, in a move that marks India's fourth-largest drugmaker's entry into the vaccines space.
Some of the other gainers from this pocket was Bafna Pharmaceuticals which gained around 8% to Rs 35.50 in BSE extending its gains from Wednesday on rating upgrade by CRISIL.
Ranbaxy Laboratories moved higher by 4% to Rs 625, bouncing back 6.5% from intra-day low on BSE, on back of heavy volumes.
SBI, ONGC, Infosys, Wipro, ITC and TCS added 0.2-2% were the some of the other notable gainers.
The market breadth was negative on BSE. 1,705 stocks declined while 1,096 stocks advanced.
Asian Markets
Asian stocks mostly fell on Thursday as factory output data suggesting that China's economy was slowing dampened investor sentiment.
The China flash HSBC/Markit manufacturing purchasing managers' index published on Thursday showed factory output contracted in the world's second-biggest economy for the first time in six months.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.5%, briefly touching a one-month low. Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.1%.
Tokyo's Nikkei pared earlier gains to inch up 0.1%, with exporters buoyed by the yen's depreciation to a seven-year low versus the dollar.
