Sensex trims losses; TCS, ONGC, Maruti outperform

The market has trimmed losses in afternoon trade as both BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were down 0.5% each as compared to more than 1% fall half an hour back. However, France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE fell more than 1% and the Indian rupee continued to trade around record low of 57.25, down 95 paise.

The BSE benchmark slipped 76.55 points to 16,956.01 and the NSE benchmark was down 24.45 points to 5,140.55.

Nirmal Jain of India Infoline feels the fall in crude oil prices improved sentiment of market whereas fall in rupee continues to be a worry. Brent crude bounced back by 0.4% to USD 89.59 a barrel today after falling more than 3% yesterday; it has been down nearly 30% from USD 128 a barrel that touched during 2012. However, the Indian rupee too depreciated by 28% since April 2011.

Top software services exporter TCS and state-owned oil & gas producer ONGC gained 1% and 1.4%, respectively.

Country's largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki rallied 1.8%. Two-wheeler majors Hero Motocorp and Bajaj Auto gained 0.8% each.

However, top lenders State Bank of India and ICICI Bank too cut losses, falling 0.7% each.

Housing finance company HDFC and index heavyweight Reliance Industries declined 1.25% each.

Top cigarette major ITC, India's second largest software services exporter Infosys and engineering and construction major by sales Larsen & Toubro were down 0.7% each.

Among metals stocks, Tata Steel tanked 2.5% and Hindalco Industries tumbled 3.5%.

Cement stocks like Jaiprakash Associates (unlisted company Jaypee Cement), ACC and Ambuja Cements crashed 3-5% after Competition Commission of India slammed with a fine of more than Rs 6,000 crore on 11 cement companies.