Sensex, Nifty slump 1%; Bank Nifty loses 2%, Coal India up

4:00 pm Market closing: The market saw a sharp selloff in the last hour of trade after staying in a tight range throughout the day. The Sensex slumped 255.69 points or 1.22 percent to end at 20635.13. The Nifty ended at 6122.90, down 80.45 points or 1.30 percent.

About 1232 shares advanced, 1261 shares declined, and 142 shares were  unchanged.

The rupee also weakened as the dollar strengthens against emerging market currencies.

Bank Nifty ended the day with a loss of around 2 percent. ICICI Bank , SBI , HDFC twins were biggest losers among the banking stocks. Capital goods, oil & gas, IT, auto and pharma stocks were slaughtered in late trade today.

However, small cap stocks held firm and ended in green.

Coal India (up 2 percent) was biggest gainer in the Sensex, followed by Sesa Sterlite, Tata Power and Tata Steel .

3:40 pm Gold check: China, set to pass India this year as the world's top gold consumer, has imported nearly a fifth more bullion than data from its traditional conduit Hong Kong shows as it brings in the metal via other routes, reports Reuters.

Gold shipped from Hong Kong to the mainland, used as a proxy for Chinese demand as bullion imports are a state secret, nearly tripled to 855 tonnes in the year to September.

3:30 pm Business update: Essar Oil will shut a crude unit and a secondary unit at its 405,000 barrels per day (bpd) Vadinar refinery in western India for a week from Thursday for planned maintenance, industry sources said on Wednesday.

Essar will shut a 360,000 bpd crude distillation unit and a hydrogen making unit as part of the shutdown. It is operating its delayed coker unit at a low capacity, the sources said.

The maintenance is expected to marginally affect the company's diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as the company has sufficient intermediary stocks to process at its secondary unit, the sources added.

3:15 pm Red Alert: The Nifty marks biggest one-day loss since September 30 while it is biggest one-day loss since November 5 for Sensex. Out of the total, 44 Nifty stocks are trading in the red.

3:10 pm Market check: Selling pressure drags the market further. The Sensex is down 223.61 points or 1.07 percent at 20667.21, and the Nifty is down 70.90 points or 1.14 percent at 6132.45. About 1213 shares have advanced, 1177 shares declined, and 139 shares are unchanged.

Hindalco , ICICI Bank, Hero Motocorp , Bharti Airtel and Bajaj Auto lose over 2 percent each

3:00 pm Dealing room check: Passive money is still active on buy side. Consolidation is seen with a positive bias. Nifty's support is seen around 6000 on downside. Nifty Future is facing resistance at 6240 on upside.

It is a lacklustre trading session with the Nifty hovering below the 6200-level mark. The Nifty is down 15.55 points at 6187.80 while the Sensex is down 53.84 points at 20836.98. About 1340 shares have advanced, 1045 shares declined, and 138 shares are unchanged.

Weak cues from most Asian markets keep indices in the red. However, metals and realty stocks are on buyers' radar while midcap and smallcap outperform the peers.

Coal India gains around 3 percent, while Sesa Sterlite, Tata Power, BHEL and Tata Steel are other gainers in the Sensex. Top losers in the Sensex include ICICI Bank, Cipla , Hindalco, Bajaj Auto and Bharti Airtel.

Stocks like JK Tyre and Ceat hit fresh 52-week highs on the back of lower rubber prices. Brokerages are bullish on tyre companies on the back of benign raw material prices and attractive valuations.

1:55 pm Business update: Riding on the back of price hike and benefits from capacity expansion, JK Paper , part of JK Organisation, is aiming at a sharp jump in revenue in the remaining two quarters to Rs 2300-2400 crore in 2013-14.

"We are aiming for Rs 2300-2400 crore revenue for the FY 2014," JK Paper VP marketing Santosh Wakhloo told PTI. Wakhloo said the benefit of the Rs 1,750 crore expansion at Rayagada, Orissa would be realised from this (December) quarter.

1:40 pm Exclusive: World's largest spirit maker Diageo, which owns majority stake in United Spirits , has questioned Indian brokerage community's bullishness on the Indian liquor company. Diageo has made eight acquisitions in emerging markets over the past three years, spending about 3 billion pounds.

Gilbert Ghostine, president- Asia-Pacific, Diageo said that scale is something that the company enjoys in a lot of emerging markets (EMs) but not in India. It is because of the regulatory pressures and the regulatory nature of the business that they do not enjoy it (scale) as an advantage here. He said EMs are definitely starting to slow down and India is not immune to it and competition is huge risk for them at this point in time.

1:30 pm Market outlook: Elections will be the key trigger for the market going forward says Mahesh Patil, Co-Chief Investment Officer, Birla Sun Life AMC.

According to Patil, the market seems to be at bottom of the cycle and is fairly priced at the current juncture but there could be pockets of valuations, especially in some of the cyclicals like the banking and financials, metals and capital goods sector. He is not too bullish on realty stocks since they haven't seen significant price correction.

The market continues to be volatile as investors don't seem to be in mood for buying. The Sensex is down 48.79 points at 20842.03, and the Nifty is down 14.35 points at 6189.00.

About 1197 shares have advanced, 985 shares declined, and 145 shares are unchanged.

Except for realty stocks, most indices are under selling pressure. Realty index is up 2 percent with gains in DLF , Oberoi Realty and Indiabulls Real Estate . Big gainers in the Sensex include Sesa Sterlite, Tata Power , BHEL , Coal India and ONGC .

Meanwhile, Cipla , ICICI Bank , Bharti Airtel , Bajaj Auto and L&T are major losers.

Oil marketing companies (OMC) get a boost as Oil Minister Veerappa Moily reiterates his commitment to completely wipe out under-recoveries on diesel. He expects diesel to be fully deregulated in 6 months.

The rupee erased its initial gains and was trading weak by 12 paise at 62.48 against the dollar at on fresh bouts of dollar demand from banks and importers, reports Reuters.

12:50 pm Opinion: Prakash Agarwal, Real Estate Analyst at CIMB feels the recovery cycle for realty sector is still away.

The festival season did not bring much cheer, he told CNBC-TV18; only projects with some discount have seen marginal offtake. He says given the balance sheets of these companies, they need to do a lot more asset churn, cash conversion cycle has to improve and then only will they see return on equity (RoEs) improving.

12:40 pm Exclusive: Former GST panel head Sushil Kumar Modi says the constitutional amendment to enable the much-delayed goods and services tax won't be passed by Parliament even if its introduced in the forthcoming session. He adds that non-payment of budgeted compensation to the states by the central government can seriously push back goods and service tax (GST).

12:30 pm Update: Oil marketing companies (OMC) get a boost as Oil Minister Veerappa Moily reiterates his commitment to completely wipe out under-recoveries on diesel. He expects diesel to be fully deregulated in 6 months. BPCL is up 2 percent on the BSE.

The market is volatile as sustained profit booking and weak cues from most Asian markets keep indices in the red. The Sensex is down 84.68 points at 20806.14, and the Nifty is down 25.80 points at 6177.55.

About 1091 shares have advanced, 927 shares declined, and 114 shares are unchanged.

Banking and capital goods stocks are under pressure. Cipla , ICICI Bank , Hindalco , Bharti Airtel and HUL are top losers in the Sensex.

On the gaining side are Tata Power , BHEL , ONGC , Coal India and Sesa Sterlite.

The rupee trades in a tight range, in line with other Asian currencies as caution reigns ahead of the minutes of the FOMC meeting. Appetite is down ahead of Friday's benchmark bond auction.

Meanwhile, India gets a vote of confidence from brokerages. Religare Capital says most foreign investors still prefer India over China, but high inflation remains the biggest concern. Barclays sees the rally continuing through the end of the year.

11:50 am Stock view: Salil Sharma of Kapur Shah & Co told CNBC-TV18 recommends buying L&T. According to him, the stock has seen the worst already and had even slipped to test the lows of around Rs 700 and from there was a good recovery. "From the charts it is looking very clear that even for the long-term the weekly charts need to just clear above Rs 1020 level and then it would become a very good hold for the next two-three years. It is a very good play on the infrastructure space," he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

Sharma feels the stock may test Rs 1500 with a stop loss of  Rs 1020.

11:40 am Buzzer: Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone shares gain 3 percent after domestic rating agency ICRA upgraded its long-term debt rating to "BBB-plus" from "BBB," citing a "strong" ramp-up in cargo volumes this fiscal year.

ICRA says Adani continues to benefit from mechanisation and adequate back-up facility.

11:30 am Market outlook: Market across economies appear to be in a mood of introspection, but India may still scale new highs purely on fund flows, says Gautam Trivedi of Religare. He argues that market can absorb additional liquidity because there exists pockets of valuations. With state elections round the corner and FIIs opting for India over China, Religare Capital is mulling revising its year-end Sensex target of 17000 higher. 

He observes that the year-to-date rally has been very narrow, mainly concentrated around IT, Pharma and FMCG stocks. So even on valuation terms, there are many sectors in the market which are yet to move up, banking being just one of them. 

Cut in the market is going deeper with the Sensex losing 106.50 points at 20784.32. The Nifty is down 30.25 points or at 6173.10.

About 1042 shares have advanced, 725 shares declined, and 101 shares are unchanged.

Sugar stocks are rallying ahead of an informal meeting of ministers today at 3 pm on the sugar crisis. Shares of Bajaj Hindusthan were up 10 percent, Balrampur Chini gained 5 percent and Dhampur Sugar added 12 percent intraday on Wednesday.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and Aviation Minister Ajit Singh are likely to be present.

Asian markets are mostly lower after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke assured markets that interest rates would remain low for some time to come.

In the currency space, pressure on the yen shows no signs of letting up with the euro near a four-year peak and the dollar holding onto overnight gains. Back home, government bond prices too are slightly down due to lack of buying support ahead of Friday's Rs 15,000 crore auction and lack of fresh positive cues.

Commodities saw crude prices rising after Bernanke assured that the stimulus would stay as long as needed.

10:50 am Oil update: Brent climbed back above USD 107 a barrel on Wednesday while US crude futures rose for a second day after Ben Bernanke's reassurance about ultra-easy monetary policy continuing and on hopes of higher US oil demand, reports Reuters.

Investors also focused on talks restarting on Wednesday between major powers and Iran to curb Tehran's nuclear programme as a deal may involve easing sanctions on the OPEC producer that could lead to a rise in its crude exports.

10:40 am Market outlook: Prabhat Awasthi of Nomura says he continues to prefer exporters, and private banks among rate cyclicals, but remain cautious on domestic growth cyclicals. His Sensex target for March-end 2014 is 22,000. Nomura's top five strategy stock picks are ICICI Bank , HCL Tech , RIL , Tata Steel and NTPC .

10:30 am Buzzers: Sugar stocks are rallying ahead of an informal meeting of ministers today at 3 pm on the sugar crisis. Shares of Bajaj Hindusthan were up 10 percent, Balrampur Chini gained 5 percent and Dhampur Sugar added 12 percent intraday on Wednesday.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and Aviation Minister Ajit Singh are likely to be present.

They will discuss soft loan to sugar industries and increase in ethanol blending to 10 percent from 5 percent.

The market is going directionless in early morning trade. Weighed down by weakness in banking stocks, the market is unable to make any decisive move.

The Sensex is down 47.79 points at 20843.03, and the Nifty is down 15.10 points at 6188.25. About 1026 shares have advanced, 484 shares declined, and 78 shares are unchanged.

Bank Nifty is down over 1 percent with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank as major losers.  Infosys , Cipla and L&T are other losers in the Sensex.

However, realty and power stocks are seeing good buying. Tata Power , Sesa Sterlite, BHEL , NTPC and Coal India are top gainers in the Sensex.

Pfizer gains around 9 percent and Wyeth is up 20 percent after communication was send to stock exchanges that they will meet on november 23, 2013 to consider a scheme of amalgamation.

Gold was trading in a tight range as investors awaited the release of the minutes of a US Federal Reserve policy meeting later in the session for clues on when the bank will trim its stimulus, reports Reuters.

Bullion failed to make any headway despite dovish comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke about the bank's bond purchases as a lack of major US economic data and lacklustre physical demand prevented investors from taking any big positions.

9:50 am Market opinion: Aditya Narain of Citigroup says India's second quarter earnings are marginally ahead of expectations, with a four-quarter high and with an upside to downside ratio of over 2:1. "More managements are now more cautious on outlook, estimates are largely unchanged," he said. Citi remains relatively cautious and maintains their December 2013 Sensex target of 18,900.

9:40 am Rupee outlook: Analyst Ramanathan K says bond yields will remain well supported given the issuance of new 10-year and Bernanke's assurance that US interest rates will remain low for a long time. "The range for the old 10-year is seen between 8.95 to 9.05 percent. The new 10 year benchmark is expected to trade in the range of 8.60 to 8.7 percent," he said.

9:30 am Alert: The Uttar Pradesh sugar crisis heads to a climax as sugar mills have put crushing operations on hold. The mills will send closure notice to UP government under the Industrial Dispute Act saying cane prices are currently unviable in the state.

The market opens on a weak note. The Nifty slips below 6200, down 16.50 points at 6186.85. The Sensex is down 57.03 points at 20833.79.

Private banks are major laggards with ICICI Bank losing over 1 percent. On the gaining side are TCS , M&M and Sesa Sterlite.

Meanwhile, the rupee continues its upward momentum as it gained 12 paise in the early trade at 62.24 per dollar against 62.36 Tuesday.

Pressure on the yen shows no signs of letting up with the euro near a four-year peak and the dollar holding onto overnight gains even after more dovish comments.

Pramit Brahmbhatt, Alpari India said, "Rupee should trade strong today aided by strong equities; strong euro and good dollar inflow into the market. However there is considerable dollar demand from OMCs and other importers which is keeping a check on rupee's rise. The range for the day is seen between 61.90-63.10/USD."

Among the global markets, US stocks posted mild losses on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 recording its first two-day decline of the month, as investors awaited indications of central bank monetary moves ahead. The CBOE volatility index rose to levels above 13.

Additionally, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke assured markets that interest rates would remain low for some time to come. He said the central bank would maintain its easy monetary policy for as long as needed and will only begin to reduce bond-buying once it is assured that labour market improvements will continue.

Asian stocks declined today despite dovish comments from Ben Bernanke. Meanwhile, Bank of Japan will kick off a two-day monetary policy meeting later today with no major policy changes expected.

In commodities, crude prices edge up this morning with Brent Crude at USD 107.25 per barrel and Nymex trading above USD 94 per barrel.

From precious metals space gold prices trade flat near USD 1275 per ounce.