Nifty, Sensex lacklustre; European mkt down on BoE comments

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty dropped marginally amid volatility in afternoon trade due to fall in European markets. Tata Motors fell more than 2% as company shut down its Jamshedpur plant for three days due to prevailing economic conditions; the stock had fallen 3% yesterday.

The BSE benchmark was down 40.80 points to 16,926.96 and the NSE benchmark declined 14.7 points to 5,127.20 ahead of expiry.

Germany's DAX tanked 1.4% as country's adjusted jobless rate increased to 6.8% versus estimate of 6.7%. France's CAC and Britain's FTSE were down 1% and 0.7%, respectively. The Dow Jones futures slipped 76 points or 0.61%, indicating lower opening of US markets.

Bank Of England said banks' third quarter losses increased on default by medium and large firms. The bank expects mortgage spreads to widen significantly in Q3.

Back home, country's largest lender State Bank of India declined 1.5% while its rival ICICI Bank rose 0.25%.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries, top telecom operator Bharti Airtel and FMCG major HUL were down over 0.5%.

State-owned oil & gas producer ONGC, engineering and construction major by sales Larsen & Toubro and private sector lender HDFC Bank were marginally lower.

However, cigarette major ITC and private power producer Tata Power rallied 1% each.

Software services exporter Infosys, largest coal mining company Coal India, state-owned power equipment maker BHEL and power producer NTPC were up over 0.5%.