Nifty ends below 6000; Jindal Steel, L&T fall 4%

3:55 pm Market closing: It was a dismal trading day. The Sensex closes at 20090.68, down 211.45 points while the Nifty closes below 6000 at 5990.50, down 87.30 points. About 764 shares advanced, 1516 shares declined, and 136 shares are unchanged.

3:45 pm Movers and shakers: Gainers in the Sensex are Bharti Airtel , Wipro , TCs, Sun Pharma and Cipla . On the losing side are Jindal Steel , L&T, ICICI Bank , HDFC Bank and SBI .

3:40 pm Index stats: Banking stocks were hammered out of shape today with both Bankex and Bank Nifty closes the day losing 5 percent. Other losers are Capital Goods (down 3.1 percent), Consumer Durables (down 3 percent), Metals (down 2.1 percent), Realty (down 1.3 percent) while Technology stocks held firm with a gain of 1 percent.

3:35 pm Earnings: Ambuja Cements ends the day down around 4 percent on the BSE ahead of its April-June quarter earnings expected today. The company is likely to make strategic announcement today, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting sources. It is learnt that Holcim, which holds 50.55 percent stake in Ambuja Cements, is likely to transfer stake to ACC . ACC closes at Rs 1,215.00, down Rs 30.50, or 2.45 percent on the BSE.

3:30 pm Update: The Securities and Exchange Board of India has now left it to the Finance Ministry, the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) and the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to take a call on the issue of whether there will be a change in management and control in the Jet-Etihad deal.

3:20 pm Losers: Jindal Steel, L&T, ICICI Bank, Sterlite Industries and HDFC Bank are top losers in the Sensex.

The market has been able to hold its recovery in the last trading hour of the day. The Sensex is at 20096.06, down 206.07 points and the Nifty slips 86.50 points at 5991.30. About 688 shares have advanced, 1489 shares declined, and 130 shares are unchanged.

Fresenius Kabi shares gained for the second consecutive session today, surging 12 percent on top of previous day's 20 percent gains after the market regulator SEBI allowed to delist the company.

Atul shares jumped 6.5 percent after its first quarter net profit increased to Rs 40.4 crore from Rs 37.5 crore and net sales rose to Rs 508.3 crore from Rs 495.6 crore year-on-year. The company reported forex gain of Rs 10.2 crore during the quarter as against Rs 5.6 crore in a year ago period.

Dabur India reported slightly higher-than-expected numbers in first quarter. Fast moving consumer goods company's consolidated net profit rose 25 percent year-on-year to Rs 186 crore as against analysts' forecast of Rs 182 crore. The stock was up 0.5 percent.

02:59pm Top midcap and smallcap gainers
Fresenius Kabi shares gained for the second consecutive session today, surging 12 percent on top of previous day's 20 percent gains after the market regulator SEBI allowed to delist the company.

Atul shares jumped 6.5 percent after its first quarter net profit increased to Rs 40.4 crore from Rs 37.5 crore and net sales rose to Rs 508.3 crore from Rs 495.6 crore year-on-year. The company reported forex gain of Rs 10.2 crore during the quarter as against Rs 5.6 crore in a year ago period.

02:50pm Top gainers and Losers among Largecaps
Shares of Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank , Jindal Steel , HDFC Bank and M&M are top losers on Sensex 30, falling nearly 4 percent while IndusInd Bank , IDFC , Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank are biggest losers on Nifty 50, down 6-9 percent.

Bharti Airtel , TCS , Sun Pharma , Bajaj Auto and Cipla are major gainers, rising 1-2 percent.

02:40pm Earnings
Dabur India reported slightly higher-than-expected numbers in first quarter. Fast moving consumer goods company's consolidated net profit rose 25 percent year-on-year to Rs 186 crore as against analysts' forecast of Rs 182 crore. The stock was up 0.5 percent.

Kalyani Steels shares rallied nearly 6 percent after its April-June quarter net profit jumped more than three times to Rs 10 crore from Rs 3 crore Y-o-Y despite rise in finance cost.

02:25pm Equity benchmarks stayed in a downward journey in afternoon trade on weakness in rate sensitives, FMCG and metals stocks. Indian rupee fell 66 paise or 1.10 percent to 59.10 against the US dollar, reacting to RBI measures to curb rupee fall .

The BSE Sensex is down 283.90 points or 1.40 percent at 20018.23, and the Nifty is down 110.25 points or 1.81 percent at 5967.55.

Brent futures slipped towards USD 108 a barrel on Wednesday as weak China data renewed concerns over demand growth from the world's second-biggest oil consumer, but falls in refined product and crude stocks in the United States helped stem losses, reports Reuters.

Gold slipped on Wednesday as investors took profits after a sharp four-day rally pushed prices up to a one-month top in the previous session, while a firm dollar also hurt sentiment.

1:55 pm Opinion: HDFC's Keki Mistry believes that RBI measures are temporary in nature and will not warrant a rate hike. As far as its fund requirements are concerned, the housing major maintains a flexible approach and has shored up it requirements up to the month of July. However, if the tightening measure continues for unforeseen period, lending rates will have to be raised.

1:45 pm Downgrades: Deutsche Bank downgrades Jaiprakash Associates to "sell" from "hold" and cuts its sum-of-the-parts target price to Rs 42 from Rs 55, citing higher-than-expected debt and calling the company "maybe the most expensive cement stock."

Deutsche also cut its FY14 earnings estimates by 14 percent and that of FY15 by 9 percent, citing a "high degree of operating leverage" in a "weak cement demand environment." The stock is down 6.2 percent on the BSE.

1:40 pm Currency update: Economic activity in the euro zone's largest economies showed improvement in July, with business in the private sector in both Germany and France performing better than expectations, reports CNBC.com.

The news sent the euro to a one-month high against the dollar. The German composite figure came in at 52.8 from 50.4 in June.

1:30 pm Earnings: Consolidated net profit of United Phosphorus jumped to Rs 212 crore in April-June quarter as compared to Rs 203 crore year-on-year. During the period, net sales grew to Rs 2409 crore from Rs 2180 crore Y-o-Y. The stock is down 3.3 percent on the BSE.

1:25 pm 52-week high: TCS shares hits a new high of Rs 1,786.70 on BSE and is currently Rs 1,781.00, up Rs 31.20, or 1.78 percent. The company has completed the acquisition of French enterprise solutions provider Alti SA. The India's largest software services exporter had in April announced the acquisition of Alti in an all cash deal worth Euro 75 million.

Privately-held Alti had revenue of Euro 126 million in 2012 and its key customers include top French corporations in the banking, financial services, luxury, manufacturing and utilities sectors.

The market is bleeding on RBI's moves to arrest rupee's decline. The Sensex crashed below the psychological 20000-level but soon recovered and is currently at 20073.78, down 229 points while the Nifty slips 89.75 points to 5988.05. About 541 shares have advanced, 1448 shares declined, and 123 shares are unchanged.

Rate sensitives, capital goods and infra stocks see sharp cracks. The cuts are higher across the mid and small cap space.

Bank Nifty has fallen around 5 percent while Bankex
Big brokerages give big thumbs down to the latest RBI measures. CLSA says India may suffer more GDP downgrades while Morgan Stanley sees 75-100 bps downside to the FY 14 growth estimate.

Bonds have crashed nearly Rs 3 and the yield on the 10-year has shot up to 8.4 percent. The rupee was marginally higher in trade but has built on its gains as the market gets increasingly convinced of the RBI's resolve to defend the currency. However trading volumes are thin today.

From the earnings corner, a CNBC-TV18 poll sees Hero Motocorp's profit declining 6 percent and margins may remain stable despite volumes slumping. Ambuja Cements' June quarter topline may come under pressure due to lower realisations and volumes. Its Q1 profits may see a 32 percent dip and EBITDA margins may take a big hit. Cairn India will also declare Q1 earnings today.

12:59pm Buzzers
Wockhardt shares crashed more than 18 percent after Macquarie slashed its 12-month target price to Rs 750 and downgraded the stock to neutral. Uncertainty around remediation timelines and future approvals continue. The USFDA letter is now on the website asking the company to put in place a remediation plan.

IDFC is the top loser on the Nifty, falling more than 7 percent. Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to underweight from equalweight and cut the target price to Rs 100 from Rs 150. The macro worries a big negative for the stock, says Morgan Stanley.

Maruti Suzuki slipped over 2 percent. A media report suggests that the company has threatened to shut its key Manesar plant in Haryana as it faces the prospect of paying additional compensation for the land. The threat is concerning as the Manesar plant rolls out Maruti's blockbuster models like the Swift and Dzire.

12:45pm Ahead of earnings
A CNBC-TV18 poll sees Hero MotoCorp's profit declining 6 percent while revenue may see a modest uptick . Margins may remain stable despite volumes slumping due to slowdown. The stock is flat.

Ambuja Cements shares lost 3 percent ahead of earnings. Analysts on an average expects the company's topline may come under pressure due to lower realizations and volumes. Profits may see a 32 percent dip and EBITDA margins may  take a big hit.

Cairn India slipped 0.7 percent as the oil & gas company is likely to report weak operational number in first quarter on lower crude prices, but net profit is seen up over 12 percent due to higher forex gains.

12:30pm Indian equity benchmarks dropped further in noon trade with the 30-share benchmark losing nearly 300 points, weighed down by banks, capital goods and metals stocks.

The BSE Sensex is down 294.22 points or 1.45 percent at 20007.91 after hitting an intraday low of 19994.25, and the Nifty is down 110.40 points or 1.82 percent at 5967.40.

The BSE Midcap lost nearly 2 percent. About three shares declined for every share advancing on the exchange.

YES Bank fell more than 12 percent to touch a nine-month low of Rs 384.95 after the RBI has taken steps to curb rupee depreciation and first quarter earnings .

The BSE Bankex plunged 5 percent as the RBI moved to further rein in forex market volatility, saying bank borrowing from it will be limited to 0.5 percent of the bank's total deposits. Banks must maintain 99 percent of their daily cash reserve ratio requirement with the RBI.

Big brokerages gave a big thumbs down with the CLSA saying India may suffer more GDP downgrades and Morgan Stanley sees 75-100 bps downside to the FY14 growth estimate.

Capital Goods, Metal, Realty, PSU and Power indices lost 2-3 percent.

Top lenders State Bank of India , ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank slipped 3-4 percent.

Meanwhile, telecom operator Bharti Airtel outperformed others, rising 2 percent.

Among technology stocks, TCS jumped 1.7 percent while Infosys rose 0.6 percent and Wipro gained 1.25 percent.

Indiabulls Real Estate shares lost 3 percent on margin pressure in first quarter. Net profit of the real estate firm doubled to Rs 72.6 crore from Rs 37.7 crore year-on-year, but its margin dropped 28.7 percent in June quarter from 36.7 percent in a year ago period.

11:55 am Earnings: Indiabulls Real Estate's April-June quarter consolidated net profit rises to Rs 72.6 crore from 37.7 crore year-on-year. During the period, net sales grew to Rs 507.3 crore from Rs 214.2 crore (Y-o-Y). However, its EBITDA margin falls to 28.7 percent from 36.7 percent from year-ago period. The stock is down around 4 percent on the BSE.

11:50 am Earnings update: Private sector lender YES Bank's first quarter net profit rose higher-than-expected 38.3 percent year-on-year (10.7 percent Q-o-Q) to Rs 401 crore, driven by net interest income and non-interest income (other income).

Net interest income increased 39.6 percent (3.3 percent sequentially) to Rs 659 crore in April-June quarter from Rs 472 crore reported in a year ago period, which was in-line with expectations.

Analysts on an average had expected the bank to report net profit at Rs 382 crore and net interest income at Rs 658 crore.

Other income jumped 53.47 percent year-on-year (16.5 percent Q-o-Q) to Rs 442 crore in first quarter while net interest margin was unchanged at 3 percent Q-o-Q.

Gross non-performing asset (NPA) was 0.22 percent in June quarter as against 0.20 percent in previous quarter and 0.28 percent in a year ago period. Net NPA was 0.03 percent in first quarter of FY13 as against 0.01 percent in March quarter and 0.06 percent in corresponding quarter of last fiscal. The stock is still reeling under RBI's rupee saving norms and is down around 9 percent on the BSE.

11:45 am Gold update: Gold slips as investors took profits after a sharp four-day rally pushed prices up to a one-month top in the previous session, while a firm dollar also hurt sentiment, reports Reuters.

Bullion added nearly 6 percent in the past four sessions-biggest such rise since October 2011-as receding worries of an imminent cut to the US Federal Reserve's stimulus burnished the precious metal's appeal as a hedge against inflation.

11:40 am Cairn India AGM: The company is likely to invest Rs 300 crore on exploration and raising output. The chairman says that Cairn India us working towards commercialising 20 oil and gas finds. The Oil and gas exploration firm is down around 2 percent on the BSE ahead of its April-June quarter earnings.

Cairn is likely to report over 12 percent quarter-on-quarter jump in profit for the June quarter on forex gain, states a CNBC-TV18 poll. The firm had reported Rs 2564 crore profit in preceding quarter.

Analysts estimate revenues to slide 6.6 percent Q-o-Q along with an over 100 bps fall in EBITDA margins which is estimated to be at 73.6 percent.

11:30 am Opinion: The RBI's moves on Tuesday to curb rupee volatility apart from the earlier round of measures, are likely to have a negative impact of the investor sentiment says Taimur Baig, economist, Deutsche Bank.

Testimony to the negative outlook Baig has on the Indian economy is the fact that Deutsche Bank has downgraded India's GDP forecast to 5 percent last week.

"The authorities have done a lot. There is no shortage of measures that one can list that have been implemented or announced in the last one year or so but for whatever reason they have not galvanised investment," adds Baig.

The market is losing strength on Reserve Bank of India's rupee saving measures. Heavy selling pressure in banks has dragged the Nifty below 6000, at 5970, down 108 points while the Sensex slips 258.70 points. About 467 shares have advanced, 1284 shares declined, and 107 shares are unchanged.

Both the Bankex and Bank Nifty are down around 5 percent each. In a weak market, TCS , SUN Pharma, Bharti Airtel , Wipro and Dr Reddy's Lab are top gainers in the Sensex.

Most of Asia is flat, China is down over a 1 percent reacting to July PMI which fell further to 47.7 from 48.2 in June at a 11-month low.

Crude is stable at above USD 108 for Brent and Nymex is above USD 107. Gold is still at elevated levels, risen USD 160 from recent lows to USD 1340 an ounce

In currencies, dollar index at 82.03 yen at 99.6, euro at 1.32. The rupee was marginally higher in early trade but has built on its gains as the market gets increasingly convinced of the RBI's resolve to defend the currency. However trading volumes are thin.

Bonds have crashed another Rs 3 and the yield on the 10-year has shot up to 8.54 percent.

10:59am Buzzers
IDFC shares lost 8 percent after Morgan Stanley has downgraded the stock to underweight from equalweight and has cut its target price on the stock to Rs 100 from Rs 150 earlier. The brokerage house cut the loan growth outlook to 10 percent for 2014 and 2015. "Also, since the first move by the RBI to tighten on July 15, short rates (three-month commercial paper) are up 125 bps. This is likely to start affecting incremental funding costs. At the same time, lending rates could stay sticky - making it tough to increase lending rates by around 125 bps for an already stretched corporate," Morgan Stanley said.

Kalindee Rail continued to be in focus as the stock gained more than 3 percent. Jupiter Metals has gone ahead and increased its open offer price for Kalindee Rail to Rs 70 per share as against Rs 65/share earlier.

SpiceJet declined 1.5 percent today after reports suggest that CEO Neil Mills has resigned from the company well before the expiry of his contract in 2015. Spicejet will now be without a CEO and COO for a while. Mills is the second major exit from the airline in the past few months; chief commercial officer Harish Moideen Kutty resigned a few weeks earlier. Analysts say timing of the exit is very detrimental for the company since it comes at a time when AirAsia is preparing to begin operations from Spicejet's home turf Chennai by the end of the year.

10:45am Market update
Equity benchmarks extended losses with the BSE Sensex losing 206.66 points or 1.02 percent to 20095.47. The NSE Nifty fell 86.10 points or 1.42 percent to below 6000 level at 5991.70.

The BSE Bankex crashed more than 4 percent while Metals and Capital Goods indices lost more than 2 percent. Auto and Power declined over 1 percent.

ICICI Bank shares dropped more than 4 percent while its rival State Bank of India plunged over 3.5 percent.

10:30am Earnings impact
Coromandel International shares lost nearly 5 percent after the fertiliser maker reported a nearly 82 percent dip in its first quarter consolidated net profit for the quarter to Rs 21.4 crore as against Rs 115 crore due to excessive inventory build-up and margin pressures. EBITDA margin slipped to 5.8 percent as against 11.4 percent Y-o-Y.

KPIT Cummins declined 1 percent, reacting to earnings that came in post market hours Tuesday. First quarter margin was down to 15.86 percent as against 17.86 percent Q-o-Q due to 270 basis points negative impact of wage hike (8 percent offshore + 3 percent offshore) and 100 bps negative impact due to milestone based discounts to couple of customers.

10:10am The market has remained under selling pressure with the Nifty falling below 6050 level Wednesday, weighed down by rate sensitives after the RBI tightened money supply again .

The BSE Sensex is down 76.35 points at 20225.78, and the Nifty is down 46.25 points at 6031.55.

The BSE Bankex dropped 3.77 percent after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), just ahead of its first quarter monetary policy review on July 30, announced another set of measures to curb the rupee volatility.

Country's largest private sector lender tumbled nearly 4 percent and its rival State Bank of India lost over 3 percent. HDFC Bank and HDFC slipped 2 percent each while Axis Bank crashed 6 percent.

YES Bank is the major loser among banks, falling 8 percent. The bank will announce its first quarter numbers today.

Wockhardt has fallen further by 14 percent as there are slew of downgrades on the back of US FDA warning. Earlier this week, the pharma major said it received a warning letter from US health regulator over its facility at Waluj in Maharashtra not meeting manufacturing norms. The US FDA warning letter has asked the compnay to put remediation plan in place. Wockhardt manufactures injectables and solid dosage in Waluj.

Macquarie downgraded the stock to neutral from outperform and reduced target price to Rs 750 from Rs 1440. Citi says that the warning letter issues are serious and near-term overhang will remain.

Indian rupee gained 30 paise to 59.46 against the US dollar.

Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by 737 to 442 on the BSE.

9:55 am Exclusive: Pratip Chaudhuri, Chairman, SBI  feels that the RBI is determined to do everything to defend currency. In an exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18, he said that liquid mutual funds will be impacted more by RBI moves.

9:50 am Bond market update: Indian bond yields and swap rates surged after the central bank moved to tighten rupee liquidity further in an attempt to shore up the weak local unit, which only edged up modestly despite the measures.

The benchmark 10-year bond yield rose as much as 33 basis points to 8.50 percent, its highest since late May 2012.

The 1-year swap rate jumped 41 bps to 9.30 percent, while the benchmark five-year rate rose 27 basis points to 8.45 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

9:45 am Buying interest: Techlonolgy stocks are seeing some buying interest. TCS , Wipro , Infosys are lead gainers in the index. Among the midcaps, Hexaware is up around 2 percent on the BSE.

9:40 am Buzzing: SpiceJet is down around 2.5 percent on the BSE as its CEO Neil Mills has resignsed . His resignation comes at a time when the Chennai-based carrier has been scouting for a foreign investor after the government hiked the FDI cap in aviation and when Air Asia is launching its services from SpiceJet's home turf Chennai by the end of this year.

Neil Mills joined SpiceJet in 2010 and he has called it quits before the end of his 5-year contract. Now spicejet does not have either a CEO or COO.  SpiceJet is yet to confirm his exit.

9:35 am Anemic: Wockhardt has fallen further by 13 percent as there are slew of downgrades on the back of US FDA warning. Earlier this week, the pharma major said it received a warning letter from US health regulator over its facility at Waluj in Maharashtra not meeting manufacturing norms. The US FDA warning letter has asked the compnay to put remediation plan in place. Wockhardt manufactures injectables and solid dosage in Waluj.

Macquarie downgraded to neutral from outperform and reduced target price to Rs 750 from Rs 1440. Citi says that the warning letter issues are serious and near-term overhang will remain.

9:30 am Expert opinion: Tirthankar Patnaik of Religare Capital Markets expects more measures from the Reserve Bank of India as it tries to bolster rupee.But the flip side of this strategy is that growth will be hurt, he cautioned.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Patnaik says institutional investors have already turned bearish following the recent RBI moves. He expects the Nifty to move in a range between 5500-6100 near term.

Patnaik's firm has a neutral view on the banking sector as a whole. He sees wholesale-funded banks like Yes Bank , IndusInd to be hurt because of tight liquidity. Also, state-owned banks would suffer marked-to-market losses on their bond portfolio because of rise in yields. When interest rates rise, bond prices fall, reducing the value of the portfolio.

Religare is bullish on IT stocks, and despite the recent rally in these shares, he feels valuations are not a cause for worry. Patnaik is bullish on Tech Mahindra and TCS in this space.

He has a 'hold' rating on the FMCG sector as he feels they are expensive. Within the sector, he prefers Britannia , Dabur and Bata.

Patnaik rates L&T as his top pick in the engineering space. The stock has been underperforming for a while now, but he sees limited downside from these levels.

9:20 am Top losers: Major banking stocks are bleeding on RBI's rupee saving moves. ICICI Bank , SBI, HDFC Bank and HDFC are down between 1-3 percent in the Sensex. BSE Bankex is down 3.5 percent from its previous close.

The market has opened in the negative terrain dragged majorly by banking stocks. The Sensex opens 133.29 points down at 20168.84 while the Nifty is at 6031, down 46.80 points. About 90 shares have advanced, 203 shares declined, and 29 shares are unchanged.

Bank Nifty falls 3.5 percent as the banking stocks are under heavy selling pressure not unable to digest Reserve Bank of India's measures to curb rupee volatility.

The RBI has moved to further rein in forex market volatility as the rupee ends lower once again at 59.76 to the dollar. It says bank borrowing from RBI will be limited to 0.5 percent of the bank's total deposits. The central bank adds banks must maintain 99 percent of their daily cash reserve ratio (CRR) requirement with the RBI, against the current 70 percent.

Meanwhile, the rupee opened higher by 37 paise at 59.39 per dollar versus 59.76 yesterday. Rajeev Malik, CLSA said, "India will likely suffer more downgrades to GDP growth forecast if the RBI goes ahead with a sustained and aggressive liquidity squeeze, but it will still eventually have to live with a weaker rupee. A CRR hike on July 30 cannot be ruled out. Tactically, the RBI is more likely to prefer sucking out liquidity via bond issuance to ensure that interbank rates remain well above the repo rate."

In key earnings today-Ambuja Cements' topline may come under pressure owing to lower realisations and volumes. Profits may see a 32 percent dip and EBITDA margins are expected to take a big hit. In autos, Hero Motocorp's volumes may slump due to slowdown in sector but margins may remain stable year on year.

Other results that are expected today are Cairn India , Yes Bank, Dabur, Central Bank of India, I Bull Realty, Novartis India, Mahindra Lifespace, Mahindra Composite, Atul , United Phosphorus, , SKF India , RSWM , Orient Refractories, Kirloskar Bros and  Astra Micro.

The US markets finished narrowly mixed in lacklustre trading, but the Dow posted a fresh closing high, as investors weighed a handful of upbeat earnings against a weak regional factory report.  The CBOE volatility index dipped near 12.

Asian markets were trading lower. China's Shanghai Composite shed 0.52 percent or 10.63 points at 2,033.25. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was flat at 21,906.38. Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.77 percent or 113.66 points at 14,664.85. Singapore's Straits Times was flat at 3,253.14.

In the currency space, the euro dollar holds above the 1.32 mark. The dollar index is trading around 82.  In commodities, Brent Crude prices continue to hold above the USD 108 levels per barrel. Nymex sees modest gains around USD 107 per barrel.

From precious metals space, gold eases marginally after four days of gains as dollar firms. However it's still well above the 1340 mark.