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Markets ended lower on Thursday with financials leading the decline amid profit taking while energy shares fell after the government hiked excise duty on transport fuels.
The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended down 68 points at 27,941 and the 50-share Nifty ended down 25 points at 8,358.
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(Updated at 2:32PM)
Benchmark indices have extended losses and are trading lower weighed down by financials and oil shares.
Financial shares are trading lower on account of profit booking after recent run-up whereas oil shares are reeling under selling pressure after the government raised the excise duty on petrol and diesel.
At 14:32 PM, the 30-share Sensex was trading 145 points lower at 27,861 and the 50-share Nifty was down 47 points at 8,336.
The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up between 0.2-0.4%.
The market breadth in BSE turns marginally weak with 1,514 shares declining and 1,402 shares advancing.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 459.47crore on Wednesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
The rupee is trading at 61.50/51 versus Wednesday's close of 61.4925/5000.
Retail inflation slowed to 5.52% in October from a multi-year low of 6.46% a month earlier. Industrial production in September grew 2.5%, its fastest in three months.
ASIAN MARKETS
Japanese stocks rose to fresh seven-year highs on Thursday as investors lapped up a media report that said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appears to have decided to call an early election amid mounting expectations hewould postpone a planned sales tax hike.
The report from Jiji news agency was the latest in a spate of shifting speculation that has kept markets rapt this week.
The Nikkei benchmark ended 1.1% higher to 17,392.79, the highest closing level since June 2007.
SECTORAL INDICES
BSE Oil & Gas index has slumped by over 1.5% followed by counters like Metal, Banks, Power and Realty, all falling between 0.5-1%. However, BSE IT, Consumer Durables and Healthcare indices have gained by nearly 1% each.
Oil shares are reeling under selling pressure after the government has raised the excise duty on petrol and diesel to boost revenues and contain budget borrowing that could put off a likely cut in the retail prices of the two fuels.
The government has raised the factory gate tax by Rs 1.50 a litre each for the two fuels. This is the seventh reduction in petrol prices since August and the third in rates of diesel since its decontrol last month.
STOCKS IN FOCUS
The main losers on the Sensex are Tata Power, Axis Bank, HDFC, GAIL, ONGC, Sesa Sterlite, SBI, Tata Motors and RIL.
Shares of the frontline banks are trading lower on profit booking after rallying nearly 14% in past one month. ICICI Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda, Axis Bank, Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank are down between 1-2% on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
In past one month, Bank Nifty had rallied 13.8% against 6.4% rise in the benchmark index till yesterday after the Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation declined to its lowest level in five years in September. The October WPI inflation data is due on Friday, 14 November.
Meanwhile, the Consumer-Price Index (CPI) based inflation rose to 5.52% in October compared to the same period last year, its lowest rate since the government started releasing the data in February 2012.
From the oil & gas space, OMCs like HPCL, BPCL, Cairn India, OIL and IOC have dipped between 2-5%.
Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) has fallen 4.8% after September quarter profit fell by about 50% to Rs 4.64 billion.
On the gaining side, Wipro, Infosys, Sun Pharma, Cipla and BHEL are up 1-2%.
Shares of capital goods companies are trading higher by up to 3% after the production of capital goods increased 11.6% in September, against a decline of 6.6% a year ago and 9.7% in August this year, as per the Industrial Production data which was released yesterday.
Larsen and Toubro (L&T), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), ABB India, Thermax, Alstom T&D India, Alstom India and Siemens are up 1-3% on the BSE.
