The benchmark BSE Sensex tanked over 156 points and the NSE Nifty dipped below the 8,200-level in early trade on Wednesday due to sustained selling by participants amid mixed Asian cues.
At 1015 hours, the 30-share barometer, Sensex was trading down 113 points, or 0.42% at Rs 27,139.87. The index had lost 217.37 points in the previous two straight sessions.
Asian stocks slipped on Wednesday, taking cues from an overnight decline on Wall Street and capped by caution ahead of a policy statement from the US Federal Reserve due later in the day.
Caution ahead of expiry of October month contracts in the derivatives segment on Thursday also influenced sentiments.
Axis Bank stock down 6% in early trade
Despite a 19% jump in the net profit to Rs 1,916 crore, Axis Bank stock slipped nearly 5% as analysts raised concerns over the asset quality of the bank. Axis Bank’s asset quality of the bank slipped a tad as gross non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans rose to 1.38% of gross advances as of September 2015 as against 1.34% a year ago.
All the sectoral indices led by banking, realty and capital goods were trading in the negative zone, falling up to 0.94%.
Quarterly results on Wednesday
Ambuja Cement, Dabur, Pidilite, Amaraja Battery, Exide, JSW Energy will be announcing their Q2 results on Wednesday. Which means, their stocks will be in focus in the day.
The NSE Nifty slipped below the 8,200-mark by losing 51.90 points or 0.63% to 8,181 in early trade.
Among Asian markets, Shanghai composite was quoting 0.91% lower, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.72%, while Japan’s Nikkei up by 0.60% in early trade on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.24% lower on Tuesday.