Market benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty fell on Wednesday as shares of oil marketing companies slipped on higher crude prices, and the rupee hit a more than one-and-a-half year low, while traders turned cautious a day before the expiry of derivatives contracts.At 12.17 pm, Sensex fell 95 points to trade at 35,395, while NSE's Nifty fell 36 points to trade at 10,734.On Tuesday, Indian rupee was under severe pressurea downward spiral that persisted on Wednesday as the local currencyplunged to 19-month low.
Increased demand for the American currency put pressure on the rupee, according to market observers.
At 68.54, the rupee dropped to a new low in past 19 months against the US dollar today.
The BSE oil and gas index at 12.44 pm was down by 2.93 percent, steepest fall among sectoral indices.Global Oil prices rose on Wednesday as a supply disruption in Canada tightened the market and after US officials told importers to stop buying Iranian crude from November.
Uncertainty over Libyan exports also supported crude, traders said.
Brent crude futures had climbed 61 cents, or 0.8 percent, from their last close to $76.92 per barrel by 12.20 pm.
Even India's petrol and diesel prices were left unchanged today after six days of continuous price cuts.The top gainers among Sensex stocks are HUL(1.38percent), TCS (1.25percent), and Infosys (0.94perent).
The top laggards are ICICI Bank (3.66percent), LT(1.62percent) and PowerGrid(1.54percent).
Among sectoral indices, the BSE IT index posted maximum gains in the morning trade.
The BSE IT index was higher by nearly 1percent and BSE Teck index rose by 0.78percent.The BSE utilities index fell by over 2percent and BSE metal index fell by 1.26 percent.Sustained buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) and short-covering of outstanding positions by speculators ahead of Thursday's June series expiry in the derivatives segment also supported the uptrend.
Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares Rs 238.05 crore, while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 538.40 crore yesterday, as per provisional data, reported Press Trust of India.Today isthe second day ofVarroc Engineering's IPO.
By the afternoon trade of second day of public issue, the IPO has garnered 35percent of bids out of the total number of 1,41,85,212, as per the National Stock Exchange (NSE) data at 12.10pm.
The IndusInd Bank shares hit a record highof Rs 1,995 on Wednesday after lender's acquisition of ILFS Securities Services was announced in a stock market filing on Tuesday.Asian share markets were under pressure on Wednesday as weakness in Chinese stocks and the yuan weighed on sentiment in the region, while oil climbed as the United States pressured allies to stop buying Iranian crude, reported Thomson Reuters.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost another 0.3 percent after touching a two-year trough on Tuesday.Chinese blue chips eased 0.4 percent to be a whisker above 13-month lows as a settlement of Sino-U.S.
tensions remained a distant prospect.On Tuesday, gold also fell by Rs 55 in Delhi's bullion market.
Gold prices fell to Rs.
31,595 per 10 grams on Tuesday, mainly on sluggish trend overseas amid easing demand from local jewellers.
(With inputs from Reuters)