Photographs: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff Manu Kaushik in Mumbai
Market broke its three day winning streak as investors booked profits at higher levels. Weakness in Asia and Europe dragged domestic benchmark share indices with banking and financial stocks leading the decline.
The 30-share Sensex ended 255 points, or 1.25 per cent lower than its previous close at 20,193 levels and the 50-unit Nifty was down 83 points at 6,001.
Asian markets retreated from their recent highs as investors and booked profits after gains in the previous five straight sessions.
The Nikkei which had surged nearly 5% in the previous three sessions ended down 1.8%, the Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite were down 0.5% each while Straits Times which had seen a correction yesterday was trading with marginal gains.
European shares were also trading weak weighed down by profit taking in select bank shares and global food major Nestle. CAC, DAX and FTSE down 0.2-0.4% each.
Moving in line with the equity market, the rupee fell by 29 paise to 62.38 against the dollar in late noon trades today on fresh dollar demand from banks and importers.
BSE Bankex and Capital goods were the top losers among the sectoral indices down a whopping 2 per cent followed by Capital goods, Oil and Gas, Metal, power and Healthcare indices all between 1.6-1.8 percent.
Financials contributed the most to the Sensex decline with HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI and Axis Bank down between 1.6-2 per cent.
In the Oil and Gas segment, ONGC was down over 3 percent ahead of its third quarter earnings while index heavyweight Reliance Industries was down 1 per cent after the Delhi chief minister on Tuesday ordered the state Anti-corruption Branch to file a case against the company for overpricing of natural gas and underproduction from KG-D6 field.
Cipla was the top Sensex loser down nearly over 7 per cent after reporting 17 per cent year-on-year (yoy) fall in consolidated net profit at Rs 284 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2013 (Q3FY14), due to higher cost.
The pharmaceutical company had profit of Rs 340 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.
Coal India was down over 3.5 percent amid disappointing Q3 earnings.
The state owned company reported a decline of 11.4% in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2013 on lower e-auction realisation and quantity.
Sun Pharma stock was up 0.7 percent after its consolidated FY14 revenue growth guidance was revised to 29 percent compared to previous guidance of 25 percent. The stock
Capital goods shares were weak after dismal IIP data for December.
Dragged down by manufacturing, particularly of consumer durables, industrial production shrank by 0.6 per cent in December 2013 as against 1.3 per cent in November, the third straight month of contraction, official data showed on Wednesday. BHEL and L&T were down 1-2% each.
Among other shares, Eros International Media has moved higher by nearly 6% to Rs 166 after reporting a strong 41.5% year-on-year (yoy) jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 92 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2013 (Q3), on back of strong operational performance.
The company had profit of Rs 65 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.
Shares of Great Eastern Shipping Company today rose by as much as 6.6% after the Reserve Bank allowed foreign institutional investors to buy up to 33% of the paid-up equity capital in the company.
The broader markets were also weak with BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices down 0.8-1 per cent.
Market breadth continued to remain weak with 1,570 losers and 865 gainers on the BSE.
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