Sensex, Nifty continue to be sluggish; banks slump

Moneycontrol Bureau11:55 am Bihar polls turn out:  Around nine percent turnout was recorded in the first two hours of polling in 50 Assembly constituencies of six districts of Bihar on Wednesday. "Around 9.12 percent turnout has been reported from 50 Assembly constituencies in the third phase. Polling is peaceful in the state as we have not received information of any untoward information so far," Additional Chief Electoral Officer (ACEO) R Lakshmanan told agency.

Polling is currently underway in six districts of Saran, Vaishali, Nalanda, Patna, Bhojpur and Buxar in the third phase. As per hourly EC bulletin, Saran recorded 10.29 percent turnout, Vaishali recorded 13.32 percent, Nalanda 8.80 percent, Patna 7.41 percent, Bhojpur 6.61 percent and Buxar 9.41 percent.

11:45 am Sebi: To ensure better compliance with corporate governance norms, Sebi may expand list of companies required to submit annual 'business responsibility report' to the market regulator, to the country's top 500 corporates. Presently, the business responsibility reports (BRs) are mandatory for top 100-listed entities based on market capitalisation at BSE and NSE. "As part of corporate governance efforts we are now looking at expanding this universe say from top 100 to top 500 companies to submit business responsibility reports," Sebi chairman U K Sinha said here.

"We hope to take a decision in this regard very soon," he said at a Ficci conference on Indian capital markets. The BRs are submitted by the companies along with annual reports and indicate, among others, the number of complaints related to child labour, forced labour, involuntary labour and sexual harassment during a financial year.

11:30 am Fii view:  The Indian Nifty will make a new high by June next year, says Adrian Mowat, JP Morgan's chief Asian and emerging market equity strategist. But in the near-term, China, Taiwan and Korea are likely to do better than India, he says. This is because India has performed better than these countries and hence these countries have a better chance of rebounding, he explains. However, from a 3-5 year perspective, India continues to be the best structural bet among emerging markets, he told CNBC-TV18.Don't miss: Axis Bank tanks 7% on asset quality; analysts still bullish

The market continues to be under pressure as the Sensex is down 151.57 points or 0.6 percent at 27101.87. The Nifty is down 39.45 points or 0.5 percent at 8193.45. About 830 shares have advanced, 646 shares declined, and 74 shares are unchanged.

Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and GAIL are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Lupin, ONGC and Coal India.

Gold retained small overnight gains on Wednesday, but caution prevailed ahead of a Federal Reserve policy statement later in the session as investors waited for clues on the timing of a US rate hike. The US central bank is not expected to raise rates on Wednesday, but markets will be eyeing the statement for the Fed's take on the US and global economies, and whether it could hike rates at its next meeting in December.