After languishing in red in afternoon trade, key benchmark indices extended losses in afternoon trade. At 13:16 IST, the Sensex was off 61.55 points or 0.24% at 25,140.35. The decline for 50-unit CNX Nifty CNX Nifty was higher than the Sensex's fall in percentage terms. The Nifty was currently off 26.85 points or 0.35% at 7,628.20. The broad market depicted weakness. On BSE, there were over two losers against every gainer. 1,622 shares declined and 774 shares rose. A total of 98 shares were unchanged. The BSE Mid-Cap index was down 1.29%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.8%. The decline in both these indices was higher than Sensex's fall in percentage terms.
The Sensex and the Nifty have seen high volatility so far during the trading session. The Sensex dropped 145.10 points at the day's low of 25,056.80 in morning trade. At the day's low, the barometer index hit its lowest level in almost 14 months. The Nifty hit its lowest level in almost 13 months when it dropped 48.20 points at the day's low of 7,606.85 in morning trade. Earlier, these two key benchmark indices edged higher amid initial volatility. The Sensex rose 185.42 points at the day's high of 25,387.32 in early trade.
Coal India (down 2.34%), Lupin (down 1.81%) and GAIL (India) (down 1.79%) were the top losers from the Sensex pack.
Index heavyweight and housing finance major HDFC advanced 2.49% to Rs 1,170.55. The stock hit high of Rs 1,175.95 and low of Rs 1,139.20 so far during the day.
In sector trends, telecom stocks were mixed. Bharti Airtel (down 1.1%) and Idea Cellular (down 2.65%) declined. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 5.25%) and Reliance Communications (up 1.45%) and MTNL (up 2.02%) rose.
Cement stocks declined. UltraTech Cement (down 1.35%), Shree Cement (down 1.89%), Ambuja Cements (down 0.99%) and ACC (down 0.09%) edged lower.
Grasim Industries was up 0.74% at Rs 3,399.95. Grasim has exposure to the cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.
Sugar shares logged gains as sugar futures rose in the domestic commodities markets. Bajaj Hindusthan (up 7.5%), Dhampur Sugar Mills (up 3.67%), Sakthi Sugars (up 4.15%), Balrampur Chini Mills (up 3.23%), Triveni Engineering & Industries (up 1.08%), Shree Renuka Sugars (up 3.33%) and Dwarikesh Sugar Industries (up 1.63%) gained. According to reports, sugar prices are firming up in the spot markets due to rising demand from retailers as well as bulk consumers driven by festive season.
In overseas markets, European stocks edged higher, bucking the trend set in Asia where shares were trading lower on the back of a revision in Chinese economic growth figures. Chinese stocks led decline in Asian markets after China cut its GDP growth rate for 2014 to 7.3% from 7.4% and as mixed US jobs report for August 2015 did little to quell investor uncertainty on the timing of the US Federal Reserve's first interest rate hike in a decade.
Meanwhile, in the foreign exchange market, the rupee weakened against the dollar along with decline in currencies in other emerging markets in Asia. The partially convertible rupee was currently hovering at 66.77, compared with its close of 66.465 during the previous trading session.
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