Trading highlights

MindTree was the most active stock with a turnover of Rs 824 crore followed by Parsvnath and Tech Mahindra.

Advancers

Bajaj Auto rose 0.4% to Rs 2,529.30, off the session low of Rs 2,451.05 on strong 1.4 lakh shares traded on BSE. Gujarat Ambuja was slightly up 0.2% at Rs 106.15. Cement large-caps pared losses. Volumes in the stock were considerable, at 27.6 lakh shares on BSE.

Decliners

Banks were heavily hit. ICICI Bank led the decline with a drop of over 5% to Rs 830. State Bank of India lost 3.7% to Rs 944.10 and HDFC Bank lost 2.6% to Rs 934. Telecoms were also down. Bharti Airtel slumped 4.7% to Rs 729. Reliance Communications dropped almost 4.4% to Rs 398.5.

IT large-caps were under severe selling pressure. Wipro dropped 4.6% to Rs 555., while Infosys shed 4.1% to Rs 2,019 and TCS lost 4% to Rs 1,213.5. Other prominent decliners included ITC slipping over 4% to Rs 143 and BHEL down 4.1% at Rs 2,030.

Index heavy Reliance Industries dropped 3% to Rs 1,285. The Reliance group is in talks with French retail major Carrefour as also with other global players for acquiring controlling stake to reach out to international consumers with its basket of Indian food produce.


6:30AM European markets fall in the wake of global market weakness.
European markets declined in early trade on Wednesday. The French CAC 40 index lost 1.7% at 5,343.22, the German DAX 30 index gave up 1.6% at 6,520.32 and the U.K. FTSE 100 index fell 1.3% at 6,081.20.

Advancers

Supermarket operator Carrefour was in focus, adding 2.7% as the only advancer on the main CAC 40 index after it was upgraded to overweight from equal-weight at Morgan Stanley. Stagecoach Group was another gainer, putting up 2% after it announced plans to return 700 million pounds, or $1.35 billion to shareholders and said its profit for the year will be at the top end of expectations.

Decliners

Banks providing lending facilities against a pool of mortgage loans were severely hit. Shares in Deutsche Bank dropped 3.4%, Credit Suisse lost 2.8% and UBS shed 2.4%. European banks with a U.S. lending business also fell. Shares in Royal Bank of Scotland Group which owns Citizens Financial Group, dropped 3.2% and BNP Paribas gave up 2.7%.

Insurers and fund managers were also hit, trading lower as the value of their investment portfolios was seen falling. France AXA stock fell 2.9% in Paris and shares in U.K. hedge fund manager Man Group dropped 4.5% in London.

Oil and gold

Crude oil was little changed before a report today that''s expected to show U.S. gasoline stockpiles fell for a fifth week as refineries shut for maintenance and repairs. Crude oil for April delivery rose 1 cent, or 0.02%, to $57.94 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, in early trade in London. Brent crude for April settlement fell 10 cents to $60.80 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures exchange.

Gold fell to a one-week low on speculation slowing U.S. economic growth will stall demand for the precious metal as a hedge against inflation. Gold for immediate delivery declined $3.40, or 0.5 percent, to $640.40 an ounce at 10:48 a.m. London time.

Currencies

The euro dipped against the dollar on Wednesday on growing concern that loose lending practices in the United States could be felt worldwide. The euro bought $1.3190 in afternoon European trading, down nominally from $1.3196 in New York late Tuesday. The British pound fell to $1.9233 from $1.9303 as traders waited for that country latest unemployment information. The dollar also dropped to 116.10 Japanese yen from 116.52 yen.