Sensex down 50 pts; RIL falls 2.5%, SBI, Infosys slip too

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty continued to trade with marginal losses due to fall in Reliance Industries and State Bank of India. Infosys and TCS too were adding pressure. However, the buying interest in capital goods, ITC and ONGC has limited the downside.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries tumbled 2.5% after Niko Resources, which holds 10% stake in the D6 block, said total proved plus probable natural gas reserves have fallen almost 51% to 377 billion cubic feet equivalent (bcfe) as it struggles with low reserves at its KG D6 block in India.

The BSE benchmark went down 52.76 points to 16,843.87 and the NSE benchmark was down 15 points to 5,105.45.

Country's largest software services exporters TCS and Infosys dropped 1-1.5% while rival Wipro declined 0.5%.

Top lender State Bank of India slipped over 1% while its rival HDFC Bank was down just 0.3%.

Metals stocks were under pressure due to fall in commodities in international market. Tata Steel, Jindal Steel and Hindalco were down 0.6-1%.

However, capital goods majors L&T and BHEL gained 0.85% and 2.33%, respectively after The Economic Times reported that government is likely to impose a 21% duty on imported power equipment.

Cigarette major ITC and state-owned oil & gas producer ONGC moved up 0.8% each. Top telecom operator Bharti Airtel rose 0.7%.

Asian markets remained under pressure. Shanghai, Hang Seng, Kospi, Taiwan Weighted and Straits Times fell 0.8-1.5% whereas only Nikkei gained 0.8%.