Weakness persists; Infosys, Sun Pharma down over 4%

Benchmark shares indices remained weak in late trades on Wednesday with technology shares declining the most led by Infosys amid reports of downgrade by global financial services major Citigroup.

At 2:15PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 79 points at 26,193 and the 50-share Nifty was down 26 points at 7,826.

The Indian rupee is trading higher against the US dollar at Rs 61.38 compared to the previous close of Rs 61.43.

Indian economy is likely to grow by 6.4% in 2015-16 compared with 5.6% in 2014-15, the World Bank said in its bi-annual South Asia Economic Focus report.

Over the next year or so economic growth should be supported by the recovering US economy that would provide a market for Indian merchandise and service exports, the report said.

Asian markets continued to trade weak amid growth concerns in China, the world's second largest economy. Shares in Japan witnessed a sell-off dropping to a five-week amid global growth concerns while the appreciating yen also dampened sentiment for exporters' stocks. The benchmark Nikkei ended down 1.2%. Hang Seng slipped 0.7% and Straits Times dropped 0.5%. However, China's Shanghai Composite was up 0.8%.

European shares were trading lower amid global growth concerns after IMF cut global growth forecasts and weak industrial production data from Germany. FTSE, CAC-40 and DAX down 0.2-0.6% each.

BSE IT and Healthcare were the top sectoral losers down 2.6-3.3% each. BSE Oil and Gas index was up 1.5% followed by Capital Goods index, Bankex, Auto and FMCG among others.

IT major Infosys was down over 4% on reports that Citigroup downgraded the stock to 'neutral' from 'buy' earlier ahead of its second quarter earnings due on Friday. The note says that shares are trading around 17x 1-year forward earnings adding that "positives are adequately discounted". Among other shares, TCS and Wipro were down 1.8-3.5% each. Tech Mahindra and MindTree were also down 4-5% each following a downgrade to 'sell' by Citigroup.

Pharma shares witnessed profit taking after International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its outlook for global growth. According to Reuters report, the MF cut its global economic growth forecasts for the third time this year, suggesting the environment remains difficult for companies, especially ones with multinational exposure. Sun Pharma, Cipla and Dr Reddy's Labs were down 2-4% each.

Shares of oil companies gained after Brent crude prices fell to 27-month low on global growth, oil glut concerns. Lower crude oil prices helpd improve margins for refiners and oil producers benefit from lower subsidy burden. Reliance Industries gained 1.2% and ONGC was up 1.7%. PSU oil refiners such as HPCL, IOC and BPCL were up 3-4% each.

Banks which are a proxy to the economy gained on the back of encouraging growth forecast for India by the World Bank. ICICI Bank and Axis Bank were up 0.8-1.3% each. SBI was up 1.3% after a foreign brokerage upgraded the stock on the PSU banking major's strong deposite franchise, well capitalised balance sheet and focus on profitability.

Capital goods shares were among the top gainers with L&T up nearly 2% after after the company said its wholly-owned subsidiary L&T Technology Services received approval from the Competition Commission of India to acquire the engineering business of US-based Dell Product and Process Innovation Services. BHEL rebounded after its recent correction and was up nearly 2%.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was down 0.4% and the Small-cap index slipped 0.1%.Market breadth weakened with 1,506 losers and 1,222 gainers on the BSE.