Nifty below 5700; Infosys, SBI, ONGC under pressure

The 50-share NSE Nifty continued to trade below the 5700 level, which has been its resistance since the start of this week, weighed down by banking and financial, capital goods, technology and power stocks. The Indian rupee, which went near to 51 against the US dollar last week, slipping towards the 53 level again; it was down by 24 paise to 52.96 a dollar.

The BSE benchmark fell 103 points to 18,690.40 and the NSE benchmark went down 31 points to 5,673.75. The broader markets too were down 0.5 percent as declining shares outnumbered declining by a ratio of 1172 to 870 on the BSE.

Amit Gupta of ICICI Direct expects the market to see some consolidation now. The highest put base is formed at 5,600 , so it is unlikely for Nifty to breach this level. However, he suggests buying if Nifty starts inching closer to 5,600 levels.

Country's largest lenders State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank dropped 0.8-1.3 percent.

Software services exporter Infosys lost 1.5 percent ahead of its results for the quarter ended September 2012 that scheduled to be announced on Friday. Its rivals TCS and Wipro were down 0.3 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

Engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro was down 0.9 percent while its rival state-run BHEL tumbled 1.4 percent.

Power producers NTPC and Tata Power fell 1 percent each. Housing finance company HDFC and telecom operator Bharti Airtel declined 0.5 percent each.

Utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra and state-owned oil & gas producer ONGC were down 1.25 percent each.

World's sixth largest steel manufacturer Tata Steel and drug producer Cipla gained 1 percent. Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and ITC were up 0.2 percent.