Shares in red; Pantaloon Retail down 2%; rupee down

Indian shares opened in the red today, down from Tuesday’s five-month, taking cues from global market.The Sensex down 27 points at 17857 and the Nifty 9 points at 5411.

Asian shares fell after the recent rally but the euro held near a seven-week high on Wednesday on views the European Central Bank will act to rein in surging euro zone borrowing costs and policy makers will find ways to keep Greece on lifelines.

The rupee opened lower at 55.50 against the dollar.

[caption id=“attachment_425786” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The consumer price inflation data released on Tuesday witnessed a slight decline to 9.86 percent. Reuters[/caption]

The consumer price inflation data released on Tuesday witnessed a slight decline to 9.86 percent, but is unlikely to prompt the central bank to cut policy rate.

The Bank Nifty remained down with SBI and ICICI Bank losing more than half a percent with the public sector bank staff calling for a two-day strike against the Banking Laws Amendment Bill.

Among frontline stocks, Bharti Airtel remained sluggish, opening 3 percent lower.

FMCG and pharma stocks held the index up with ITC correcting after last week’s extended losses. The stock was up 1 percent in the opening trade. Sun Pharma and Cipla also inched close to a percent gain.

Stocks in news

Pantaloon Retail was down close to 2 percent after CCI did not approve stake sale to Aditya Birla Retail.

Bharti Airtel was down close to 3 percent, extending losses from yesterday.