Sensex tanks 300 pts, Midcap falls too; Bank Nifty down 1%

Moneycontrol Bureau12:59 pm Market update: The Sensex tanked 328.42 points or 1.38 percent to 23430.48 and the Nifty plunged 94.95 points or 1.32 percent to  7120.75.About five shares declined for every share advancing on the Bombay Stock Exchange.12:40 pm Nippon gets CCI nod: Competition Commission has approved Japanese insurer Nippon Life's additional 23 percent stake purchase plan in Reliance Life Insurance in a deal worth Rs 2,265 crore.

Once the deal is complete, Nippon Life Insurance would have 49 percent stake in the company, the maximum ownership allowed for a foreign player in a domestic private insurer.

Competition Commission of India (CCI) has informed Nippon that it has approved the proposed. With the new shareholding structure, the name of the company would be changed to Reliance Nippon Life Insurance Company Ltd.

12:20 pm Earnings: Public sector lender Oriental Bank of Commerce disappointed analysts with third quarter earnings on Thursday with a loss of Rs 424.7 crore against profit of Rs 19.6 crore in year-ago period. Lower other income & operating profit and higher provisions hit bottomline.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, grew by only 0.9 percent to Rs 1,309.32 crore in quarter ended December 2015 compared to Rs 1,297.47 crore in same quarter last fiscal.Also read - Market now going cheap; pro-growth Budget needed: Nilesh Shah12:00 pm Market Check

Equity benchmarks as well as broader markets continued to be under pressure in noon trade. FMCG, private banking & financials, technology, oil and infra stocks were under pressure while healthcare stocks bucked the trend.

The Sensex declined 256.22 points or 1.08 percent to 23502.68 and the Nifty fell 76.80 points or 1.06 percent to 7138.90. More than six shares declined for every share advancing on the National Stock Exchange.

Vedanta, ONGC, Cairn India, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, BHEL, ITC, Maruti and Hindalco topped selling list, down 2-4 percent while SBI, Dr Reddy's Labs, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, Bank of Baroda and Idea Cellular gained 1-2 percent. Bank Nifty and IT indices declined 1 percent each while FMCG lost 2 percent.

Oil prices slid today as record US crude inventories at the Cushing delivery point and worries about a global economic slowdown weighed on markets, and Goldman Sachs said prices would remain low and volatile until the second half of the year.

International benchmark Brent crude futures were trading at USD 30.68 per barrel, down 16 cents and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at USD 26.98 per barrel, down 47 cents.