Sensex falls 100 pts, Nifty breaks 7450; banks, pharma drag

Moneycontrol Bureau10:59 am Market Update: The Sensex fell 130 points to 24420 and the Nifty declined 33 points to 7426.

Hindalco (-4 percent), Vedanta (-3 percent), Sun Pharma (-2 percent) and Asian Paints (-2 percent) were the big losers in the Nifty.

Other laggards in the index were Adani Ports (-1 percent),GAIL (-1 percent),Bharti Airtel (-1 percent) and Zee Entertain (-1 percent).

Gainers included ITC (2 percent), Bank of Baroda (1 percent), BPCL (1 percent) and BHEL (1 percent).

Key Asian markets were mixed. Among gainers, Taiwan’s Taiwan Index was up 76 points at 8687, China’s Shanghai was up 4 points at 2868, and Korea’s KOSPI was up 1 points at 1971. In laggards, Singapore’s Straits Times was down 0 points at 2839, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 88 points at 20200, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 144 points at 16972. 10:40 am Buzzing: Shares of Anuh Pharma fell 7.5 percent intraday, in addition to 10 percent fall in previous session after European health regulator has banned three drugs of the company.

"Following the inspection of manufacturing site of Anuh Pharma at Boisar (Maharashtra), the EDQM Ad Hoc Committee has suspended certificate of suitability for Erythromycin Ethyl Succinate, Erythromycin and Pyrazinamide," says the Mumbai-based pharma company in its filing yesterday.

European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare has also decided to close application for a certificate of suitability of Erythromycin Stearate.

Products banned by EDQM are less than 3 percent of company's sales.

10:20 am Interview: GVK Power and Infrastructure, which won 0.67 mmscmd for 220 megawatt (MW) Jegurupaddu II plant and 0.32 mmscmd for 464 MW Gautami CCPP plant in the government third gas pooling auction, says plants will operate only at 30 percent plant load factor (PLF).The government on Tuesday saw lukewarm response to auctioning under the gas pooling scheme for stranded power plants, receiving bids for 7.2 mmscmd.In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Issac George, Director & CFO of GVK Power says, the two plants were sitting idle for the last two years, as due to lack of gas terminal on East coast, the company could not buy gas from spot market despite cheap prices. Even with two new plants, George says it will be difficult to breakeven, as PLF of at atleast 60-70 percent is required for that.Don't miss - Fed won't raise rates on Wed, expect move in June: JPMorgan AMC10:00 am Market Check

Equity benchmarks as well as broader markets continued to consolidate with a negative bias. Banking & financials, healthcare and select auto stocks fell while index heavyweights ITC, Infosys and Reliance Industries supported.

The Sensex declined 106.62 points to 24444.55 and the Nifty slipped 25.80 points to 7434.80. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices fell 0.7 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.Shares of HDFC, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors, Lupin, M&M, Dr Reddy's Labs and Bharti Airtel declined 1-2 percent while ITC gained more than 1 percent.