Nifty struggles below 8450; banks gain, HUL & Maruti lose

11:35am Market Update : The market is sluggish. The Sensex is down 9.45 points at 27876.76 and the Nifty is down 3.70 points at 8444.40. About 1057 shares have advanced, 1056 shares declined, and 155 shares are unchanged.

Banks are lending major support to the indices with gainers like Axis Bank and ICICI Bank. M&M, Coal India and Tata Steel are also up 1 percent each. Sun Pharma is still down 9 percent while Maruti, Dr Reddy's, HUL and Hindalco are losers in the Sensex.

The rupee plunged by another 24 paise to hit a new one-month low of Rs 63.15 against the dollar in early trade today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange due to sustained demand for dollars from importers and bankers. Dealers said a lower opening in the domestic equity markets also weighed on the Indian currency. They attributed the rupee's fall to dollar gains against other currencies overseas.

10:35am Market Update: Equity benchmarks extended losses with the Nifty falling below 8400. The Sensex lost 188.02 points to 27698.19 and the Nifty slipped 61.35 points to 8386.75. About 881 shares have advanced, 1098 shares declined, and 137 shares are unchanged on the BSE. Banks are weak. Credit Suisse recommended reducing weight on Indian Banks and selling corporate lenders including SBI and PNB. They have cut the target price of the likes of Axis Bank and ICICI Bank and downgraded Bank of Baroda and Yes Bank to neutral. SBI, HDFC Bank and HDFC fell 0.8-1.5 percent. In the broader space, Lanco Infratech climbed 5.5 percent as the company has successfully completed sale of 1200 MW Udupi power plant to Adani Power. However, Ramco Systems cracked 5 percent as the company reported revenue growth of 4 percent with EBITDA declining 14 percent, margin at 19 percent (against 23 percent Y-o-Y) and profit down 46 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 43.5 crore. Meanwhile, the rupee breached 63-mark, down 13 paise to 63.04 a dollar. 10:25am Market Expert: The political tussle taking place in the parliament over important business-evolving Bills like the Land Acquisition Bill is taking its toll on the market, says Sandeep Bhatia, Executive Director & Head Of Sales at Kotak Institutional Equities. In an interview, Bhatia says the Indian industry should be allowed to expand by easy acquisition of land and the ongoings in the parliament act as a huge headwind for the Nifty. The other headwind, he adds, is the Q4 earnings that are on the expected lines of a slowdown. But if the earnings continue to lag growth, then information technology will be the best sector to be in, he says. 10:00am Market Check The market remained under pressure amid volatility. The Sensex fell 126.43 points to 27759.78 and the Nifty declined 46.25 points to 8401.85. About 855 shares have advanced, 991 shares declined, and 131 shares are unchanged on the BSE. Sun Pharma topped the selling list on Sensex, down nearly 10 percent as the compnay saw multiple blocks on BSE and NSE at Rs 930-Rs 968 per share with Daiichi Sankyo as the likely seller. HCL Technologies reacted negatively to its third quarter earnings. The stock fell 7 percent as the company reported a miss on all counts with dollar revenue at USD 1.49 billion against estimates of USD 1.5 billion and rupee revenue down 0.2 percent Q-o-Q for the quarter. The constant currency growth was 2.7 percent Q-o-Q against estimates of 3 percent and the margin decline was sharper than estimates with EBIT margins declining to 21.33 percent against estimates of 22.58 percent with profit down 12.1 percent to Rs 1,683 crore. Wipro too slipped 3 percent ahead of its numbers today. The street is expecting a dollar revenue to decline 0.2 percent with EBIT margins at 20.74 percent against 21.77 percent Q-o-Q. Tata Sponge Iron plunged over 8 percent after the company reported a decline of 25 percent in total income to Rs 160.3 crore with EBITDA down 105 percent to Rs 1.7 crore and profit down 79 percent to Rs 8.57 crore Y-o-Y. For More information please visit this site www.bigprofitbuzz.com