Sensex, Nifty extend losses; All sectoral indices trade in red

Benchmark indices were trading in the red at around 11.25 am (IST) on Wednesday with BSE Sensex 89 points or 0.27 per cent lower at 32,520.46 and Nifty50 at 10,200, down 34 points or 0.34 per cent.

Bank stocks such as Axis Bank (down 7.03 per cent), ICICI Bank (down 3.63 per cent), YES Bank (down 2.38 per cent) and State Bank of India (down 1.97 per cent) dragged the indices down.

Meanwhile, most of the pharma stocks, including Cipla (down 2.45 per cent), Divi's Laboratories (down 1.08 per cent) and Lupin (down 0.85 per cent) also hurt sentiment. The Nifty Pharma index was trading 0.79 per cent down at 9,663 at around the same time.

All sectoral indices were losing on NSE. Auto stocks such as Tata Motors (down 1.63 per cent), Amara Raja Batteries (down 1.07 per cent) and Eicher Motors (down 0.91 per cent) declined up to 1 per cent.

9.30 am: Sensex, Nifty off to a negative start; Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI crack up to 7%
Benchmark indices opened on a weak note on Wednesday led by selling pressure in banking and select index heavyweights. The selloff was seen a day after the market took a breather and made an indecisive Doji pattern on the daily chart. Analysts expect rangebound trade for indices in the extreme short term.

At 9.30 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 82 points, or 0.25 per cent, lower at 32,527.43.

The Nifty50 was trading at 10,199.10, up 35.35 points, or 0.35 per cent.

Sentiment on the banking counter got hurt by weak numbers from Axis Bank. The lender reported Rs 27,402.32 crore worth of gross non-performing assets as on 30 September, which were much higher than Rs 22,030.87 crore in June quarter and Rs16,378.65 crore in the year-ago ago quarter. The stock cracked 7 per cent in morning trade.

Recently, South Indian Bank reported a 96-per cent drop in net profit, as the bank was required to absorb an exceptional provision of ?252.39 crore during the quarter. Lakshmi Vilas Bank too has reported a 83.81 per cent slide in profit due to higher provisioning.

"The consolidated FY18 consensus earnings estimates for Sensex stocks were down by 0.48 per cent over the past month, combined with a 0.8 per cent increase in the index, from 32,186 on September 13 to 32,433 on October 13; the market earnings multiple has decreased to 19.07 times vs. 19.13 times a month ago. The market is trading at a 6.39 per cent premium to its five-year average," said Nomura India in a note.

Among Sensex stocks, Wipro gained 2.3 per cent to Rs 296.15 on better than expected revenue guidance.The IT company has given guidance of $2,014 million to $2,054 million for December quarter revenue from its IT services business.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, Power Grid and Reliance Industries rose up to 1.2 per cent. On the other side, ICICI Bank, SBI, Cipla and Bajaj Auto decliined between 1 per cent and 2.3 per cent.

Ultratech Cement, Hindustan Zinc, Havells India, Indiabulls Housing Finance, NIIT Technologies, Zuari Agro Chemicals, Nocil, Tinplate and Zuari are some of the companies announcing their quarterly results today.

Meanwhile, non-banking financial company MAS Financial Services will make stock market debut tomorrow after having concluded its initial share sale offer last week. The Rs 460-crore initial public offer (IPO) was over-subscribed 128 times from October 6-10. The company had fixed the price band at Rs 456-459 per share for the IPO. The company is a Gujarat-headquartered NBFC with more than two decades of business operations.