Nifty near day's low; Bharti, Idea rise post 2G auction

The NSE Nifty was trading near day's low due to weakness in ITC and Infosys. Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, TCS and Tata Motors too added pressure whereas Bharti and HDFC outperformed other bluechips. The 30-share BSE benchmark dropped 171 points to 18,448.08 and the 50-share NSE benchmark was down 51 points to 5,615.80. In the second line shares, Tata Coffee surged 17.5 percent. Amtek Auto, Biocon, Shree Global and M&M Financial were up 3-4 percent while Jindal Saw, Muthoot Finance, HDIL, Indiabulls Real and Pantaloon Retail were down 4-6 percent. Top telecom operator Bharti Airtel and its rival Idea Cellular gained 3-4 percent after 2G spectrum auction. Housing finance company HDFC rose 0.5 percent and FMCG major Hindustan Unilever was up 0.23 percent. Shares of ITC, Infosys, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, TCS and Tata Motors tanked 1-2 percent. Lenders HDFC Bank and State Bank of India were down 0.6 percent each. The market breadth was negative as about 822 shares advanced while 1596 shares declined on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Among Asian markets, Shanghai, Hang Seng, Straits Times and Kospi fell 0.4-1 percent but Nikkei extended gains to 1.8 percent after Japan's main opposition leader, Shinzo Abe, who is expected to win next month's election, said he wants the Bank of Japan to adopt interest rates of zero or below zero to enhance lending. (with inputs from Reuters)