Key barometers were trading in a narrow range near day's low in early afternoon trade. At 12:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 385.86 points or 1.11% at 34,393.72. The Nifty 50 index was down 115.10 points or 1.10% at 10,337.95.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.87%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 1.42%.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On BSE, 726 shares rose and 1565 shares fell. A total of 140 shares were unchanged.
Cement shares declined. Ambuja Cements (down 2.61%) and UltraTech Cement (down 2.28%), edged lower.
ACC lost 6.16% after the company declared its Q3 result after market hours on Wednesday, 17 October 2018. ACC reported 15.21% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 209.14 crore on 10.34% rise in total income to Rs 3468.37 crore in Q3 September 2018 over Q3 September 2017.
The company's cement sales volumes rose by 10% during the quarter spurred by higher demand. The company's ready mix concrete sales volumes grew 12% driven by an increase in the sale of value added products and the addition of 8 new plants across the country. While costs of input materials such as coal, petcoke, diesel and slag continued to increase, they were partly offset by improvements in operating efficiencies and productivity.
In its outlook, ACC said that demand drivers including growth in affordable and rural housing segments as well as infrastructure projects will remain healthy.
Grasim Industries was down 0.07%. Grasim has exposure to cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.
Telecom shares were mixed. MTNL (up 1.71%), Bharti Airtel (up 1.11%) and Vodafone Idea (up 0.79%), edged higher. Reliance Communications (down 0.58%) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 0.97%), edged lower.
Telecom tower infrastructure provider Bharti Infratel was down 0.51%.
Overseas, stocks in Asia were mixed on Friday after China's GDP growth for the third quarter of 2018 came in below expectations. Issues ranging from trade worries, Italy's 2019 budget and higher US interest rates also worried investors.
China's economic growth slowed to the weakest pace since the first quarter of 2009 as the country's trade war with the US puts pressure on growth, according to official data released on Friday. The world's second-largest economy said its economy grew 6.5% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2018. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, China's economy grew 1.6%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
US stocks closed sharply lower Thursday, dogged by worries about global growth and as investors continued to weigh minutes of the Federal Reserve's September meeting, which were viewed as hawkish.
The minutes of the Fed's September meeting, released on Wednesday, indicated that policy makers are prepared to forge ahead with increases and will likely hike rates again as early as December, as expected.
On the data front, first-time jobless claims fell by 5,000 from a week ago, as the Labor Department reported just 210,000 Americans applying for initial jobless benefits in the week ending 13 October 2018, close to 49-year lows.
The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index came in slightly below last month's reading, with a print of 22.2 in October, compared with 22.9 in September. The Conference Board said its leading economic indicators rose 0.5% in September.
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