Mumbai: Equity markets witnessed profit booking and extended morning losses ahead of the country’s second-quarter GDP data which is likely to come lower than 5 percent.
Investors also tracked weak global cues after the passage of the Hong Kong pro-democracy bill in Washington that could derail trade talks between the United States and China.
At 12 noon, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 417 points or 1.01 percent to 40,713 while the Nifty 50 tumbled down by 121 points at 12,030.
All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty metal down by 1.6 percent, auto by 1.2 percent, FMCG by 1 percent and PSU bank by 0.9 percent.
Among stocks, Hindalco lost by 3.3 percent, Tata Steel by 2.2 percent, Vedanta by 1.9 percent and Maruti Suzuki by 1.5 percent. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries slipped by 1.5 percent to Rs 1,556.25 per share.
The other prominent losers were Hindustan Lever, Britannia, Asian Paints, State Bank of India and Dr. Reddy’s.
However, Bharti Infratel continued to climb up and added gains of 5.9 percent at Rs 271.95 per share while Bharti Airtel was up by 1.3 percent. Adani Ports, utility major NTPC and Bharat Petroleum Corporation were also in the green.
Meanwhile, Asian markets slipped as investors turned cautious, fearing a new US law backing Hong Kong protesters could put hurdles in efforts to end the US-China trade conflict.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell by 0.9 percent. Hong Kong led the losses, dropping by 2 percent while South Korean shares lost by 1.2 percent and Japan’s Nikkei eased by 0.1 percent.