Nifty holds 8,400 amid choppy trade; Wipro down 1%

Markets turned choppy weighed down by pharma shares with Sun Pharma leading the decline while gains in ITC and financials helped offset some of the losses.

At 10:45AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 100 points at 27,786 and the 50-share Nifty was down 33 points at 8,444.

"Selling is likely to emerge at higher levels in the morning session. For the Sensex resistance is seen at 28054 above 28250. Support is at 27889 below 27868 and more. For the NIFTY resistance is seen at 8461 above 8491 and 8508. Support is at 8422 below 8380 and more," Geojit BNP Financial Services said in a technical note.

The Indian rupee was trading lower at 63.15 to the US dollar compared to the previous close of 62.92 amid concerns over retrospective taxation among foreign investors while gains in the dollar also weighed on the Indian currency.

BSE Healthcare index was the top loser down 2.6% along with IT index which was tradig 0.7% lower. Metal, Consumer Durables, Power, Capital Goods, Oil and Gas were among the top gainers.

HCL Technologies fell further and was down 10% amid weak third quarter earnings. The IT major today reported a 12% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,683 crore for the third quarter ended March 2015 (Q3FY15). Consolidated revenues too declined marginally by 0.2% at Rs 9,267 crore on QoQ basis.

Sun Pharmaceuticals was down nearly 10% after Japanese pharma major Daiichi Sankyo sold its 8.9% stake in Sun Pharmaceuticals through multiple block deals on the stock exchanges. At 10:30AM, over 10 million shares were traded on both the stock exchanges.

Wipro was down 2.7% ahead of its March quarter earnings later today.

ITC was the top gainer up 1.3% after easing nearly 3% in the previous session.

Bank shares were trading mixed with ICICI Bank and Axis Bank up 0.7% each while SBI eased 1.7% and HDFC Bank was trading flat with negative bias.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries pared early gains and was trading with marginal losses.

Infosys was trading marginally higher rebounding from the sharp losses in the previous sessions.

Coal India was up 0.9%. Foreign brokerage UBS has initiated coverage on Coal India with a 'buy' rating with a target of Rs 470. believes that the company remains relatively insulated from the fall in commodity prices which makes it a stock worth holding,

Among other shares, HOV Services is locked in lower circuit of 20% at Rs 120 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) after the company said the proposed buyer of its stake in SourceHOV decided not to proceed with the purchase of the investment.

In the broader markets, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were trading flat.

Market breadth was strong with 904 gainers and 640 losers on the BSE.