Ahead of Budget, Sensex lower by 136 points in late morning deals

Benchmark Sensex slid 136 points in late morning deals following continued selling pressure in key frontline shares of healthCare, consumer durables, telecom, capital goods, IT and teck sectors. The market trading remained subdued with negative bias as investors turned cautious ahead of the Union Budget due tomorrow.

Realty, telecom, metal and Oil&Gas found buying interest. The 30-share BSE Sensex index was trading lower by 136.16 points or 0.38 per cent at 35,897.57 at 1150 hrs. The broader Nifty was also trading at 11,016.95, down by 32.70 points or 0.30 per cent.

Major losers were Dr Reddy 3.16 per cent, Coal India 2.40 per cent, ICICI Bank 2.17 per cent, HUL 1.79 per cent, SunPharma 1.74 per cent and Wipro 1.40 per cent. Gainers included Kotak Bank 1.31 per cent, Reliance 1.09 per cent and Bharti Airtel 0.92 per cent. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 105.56 crore on net basis while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also sold equities to the tune of Rs 281.65 crore yesterday, provisional data showed.

Asian markets bounced back and were trading higher as traders studied US President Donald Trump's call for infrastructure investment in his State of the Union address. US stocks declined yesterday as heavy losses in health- care and energy shares weighed on the main indexes. Climbing US bond yields, which imply a rise in borrowing costs, also put pressure on stocks.