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Markets continued to remain weak in noon trades on Friday weighed down by profit taking in capital goods, auto and metal shares.
At 12:40PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 40 points at 20,685 and the 50-share Nifty was down 21 points at 6,144.
The rupee weakened in afternoon trades after strengthening against the dollar in early trades.
At 12:40 pm the rupee was trading at Rs 61.57 compared with previous close of Rs 61.59 per dollar.
There is month-end dollar demand in the market from importers which may result in weakening of the rupee later during the day.
Asian markets remain subdued for most part of the trading session today. The Nikkei ended down nearly 3% amid a stronger yen, while Shanghai COmposite fell 1.8% and Hang Seng was down 0.6%. Straits Times was marginally down 0.1%.
Realty index was the top loser among the sectoral indices on the BSE down nearly 2% followed by Capital Goods, Metal, Healthcare and Auto indices all down over 1% each.
Engineering major L&T was down 2.3% on profit taking after recent gains while BHEL was down 2.2% at Rs 137 together contributing the most to the Sensex decline.
Sun Pharma slipped 2% at Rs 608 retreating from Rs 638 levels on account of profit taking.
Hindustan Unilever, M&M, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Hindalco were the other Sensex losers
IT majors Infosys and TCS were among the Sensex amid a weakening rupee and buying at lower levels after the recent correction. Other Sensex gainers include ITC up 0.8% ahead of its second quarter earnings later today. ICICI Bank was up 0.6% after the bank beat street estimates reporting net interest income of Rs 4,043 crore. Net profit stood at Rs 2,352 crore.
Among other shares, Centum Electronics is locked in upper circuit for second day in a row, up 10% at Rs 119 on BSE, after reporting consolidated net profit of Rs 10.03 crore for the quarter ended September 2013 (Q2) on back of strong revenue growth. The company had reported loss of Rs 12.14 crore in the same quarter year ago.
The broader market slipped further with the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices down 0.3-0.4% each.
Market breadth was weak with 1,128 losers and 858 gainers on the BSE.
