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Benchmark share indices extended losses and were trading near their day's lows in afternoon tades weighed down by selling pressure in financials and oil shares.
At 12:50PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 151 points at 20,672 after hitting an intra-day low of 20,645 and the 50-share Nifty was down 48 points at 6,139 after touching a low of 6,132
The rupee weakened slipped further in noon trades today and was trading at Rs 62.67 compared with previous close of Rs 62.42 per dollar. According to currency dealers, later during the day the Reserve Bank of India may intervene to arrest significant weakness.
Asian share indices continued to remain weak as investorsturned cautious ahead of the US jobs data later today. A robust jobs data would help the US Fed start reducing its monetary stimulus measures sooner-than-expected. Japan's benchmark share index, the Nikkei, ended down 1.1% at 14,086.80. Among other indices in the region, Shanghai COmposite was down 1.1%, Hang Seng dipped 0.7% while Straits Times was down 0.8%.
The BSE Consumer Durables index was the top loser among the sectoral indices down 2.2% followed by Oil & Gas, Bankex, Realty, and Auto.
In the oil and gas segment, Reliance Ind extended losses and was down 1% at Rs 876 and PSU exploration major ONGC was down nearly 2% at Rs 278.
HDFC group shares also witnessed selling pressure with HDFC down 3% and HDFC Bank slipped 1.8%.
Other Sensex losers include TCS, Maruti Suzuki, ICICI Bank, SBI and Mahindra & Mahindra.
Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Infosys and ITC were among the top Sensex gainers. Tata Motors is trading with marginal gains ahead of its second quarter earnings while Infosys is trading flat with positive bias.
Among other shares, Eicher Motors have soared over 4% on reporting a robust 63% year-on-year (yoy) jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 107 crore for the third quarter ended September 30, 2013 (Q3) mainly due to one-time other operating income of around Rs 53 crore. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 66 crore during the same period of previous year.
Shares of Punjab National Bank (PNB) have dipped nearly 5% at Rs 519 on BSE after net profit of the state-owned bank has been more than halved at Rs 505 crore during the quarter ended September 30, 2013 (Q2) due to higher provisioning for bad loans.
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were both down 0.4% each.
Market breadth was negative with 1,256 losers and 850 gainers on the BSE.
