Mkts in red on profit booking, weak global cues

Mumbai: Markets have opened sharply lower in line with fall in Asian and US markets and have lost most of the Tuesday's gain on the back of profit booking.

Selling is seen in realty, metal, banking, telecom, power, capital goods and technology stocks. Midcap and small cap stocks have also slipped in to the red.

At 9:56 am, the Sensex fell 254 points to 11,228 and the Nifty tumbled 77 points to 3,441. CNX Midcap 100 lost 76 points to 4,117.

Shankar Sharma of First Global said poor IIP numbers and a sell-off in metals is the beginning of a sharp correction. "Newsflows are still poor.

The markets have still not bottomed out. We don't see the Sensex rising beyond 12,500 in the current move and expect a further downside in October.

The Sensex could head back to 10,000 levels, and may even dip below that."

Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, DLF, ICICI Bank, Suzlon Energy, Siemens, Tata Steel, Unitech, Idea Cellular, Satyam, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Reliance Communication, TCS, L&T, SBI and Cairn India have lost ground.

However, Ranbaxy Labs, BPCL, PNB and HUL have gained.

Asian markets are trading lower. Nikkei, Hang Seng, Shanghai, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan tumbled 1.5-3%.

US markets ended lower as the enthusiasm about the government's plan to buy stakes in the nation's largest financial institutions died down and worries about earnings crept in.

The Dow slipped 76.62 points, or 0.82%, to 9,310.99. The S&P 500 index was down 5.34 points, or 0.53%, to 998.01, and the Nasdaq plunged 65.24 points, or 3.54%, to 1,779.01.

Market cues:

RBI to continue 14-day Repo for MFs till further notice

FM to brief media today after PM, FM & RBI Governor meeting last evening

FIIs net sell USD 208.8 million in equity on October 13

MFs net buy Rs 520.5 crore in equity on October 13

NSE F&O Open Interest up by Rs 1,091 crore at Rs 70,492 crore

F&O cues:

Futures Open Int up by Rs 791 crore, Options Open Int up by Rs 300 crore

Nifty futures add 18 lakh shares in Open Int, at 9-point premium

Nifty Open Int Put-Call Ratio (PCR) at 0.76 vs 0.75

Nifty Puts add 7.7 lakh shares in Open Int, Call Open Int unchanged

Nifty 3500 Put adds 3.4 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 3600 Put adds 2.5 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 3700 Call adds 7.2 lakh shares in Open Int

Stock futures shed 2 cr shares in Open Int