Sensex down over 200 points; Nifty slips below 8,500

Benchmark share indices opened lower amid profit taking at higher levels with index heavyweights leading the decline.

However, PSU banks were in focus with Bank of Baroda leading the gains after the government launched seven-pronged revamp plan to revive the ailing PSU Banks, including a Rs 20,000-crore capital infusion lifeline.

At 9:40AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 262 points at 27,804 and the 50-share Nifty was down 65 points at 8,453.

Movement of rupee and crude coupled with progress of monsoon is likely to dictate the trend on the bourses. Further, the US Federal Reserve would release the minutes of their meeting held on July 28-29 on Wednesday, August 19 which is likely to signal the US central bank's stance on key policy rates.

The rupee weakened further against the US dollar and was down 24 paise at 65.24 to the US dollar.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers to the tune of Rs 404 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

All sectoral indices were trading with losses with Capital goods, IT, Healthcare, Realty and Auto among the top losers.

Bank of Baroda was the top Nifty gainer up 10% after the government appointed PS Jayakumar to head the Bank. Meanwhile, Canara Bank was also up over 3% after the government announced the appointment of Rakesh Sharma as chief executive of the bank. Rakesh Sharma currently is the chief of Laxmi Vilas Bank.

HDFC was down 1.5%. The company plans to sell 9% stake in HDFC Life to its British joint venture partner Standard Life for a little over Rs 1,700 crore.

In the banking space, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank and Axis Bank were down 0.8-1.3% each while state-owned SBI was the top Sensex gainer up nearly 2%.

Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and Infosys were down 1-1.6% each.

Cipla was down over 4% on profit taking. The company reported an over two-fold jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 650.61 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 mainly on account of robust sales.

Bombay Stock Exchange - BSE

National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE)