The BSE Sensex was trading at 17411 points, down 79 points at 9.20 am IST, while the Nifty was trading down by 23 points at 5264 points.

The metals pack continued to be hammered once again in trade today. Jindal Steel , Sterlite Industries and Sesa Goa all lost more than 2% in early trade. Banking stocks which along with the metals pack had come in for relentless selling in the last few days also exhibited a weak trend. Private sector lender ICICI Bank was down more than 0.53%, while State Bank of India was down 0.28%, and Axis Bank was trading lower by 0.28%.

Orhid Chemicals gained more than 3%, after the company sold its Penicillin and Penem active pharma ingredient (API), including its plant in Aurangabad, to US-based Hospira.

HeroMotor Corp continued to lose ground for a second day in a row and was trading lower by 1%, after falling as much as 2% on Wednesday.

Markets could be volatile ahead of the August contracts expiry later in the day. Markets are eagerly awaiting GDP data to be announced on Wednesday, wherein the consensus estimate is around 5.3%. Globally, all eyes are on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, when he makes a statement at Jackson Hole, to see if there are any signals for quantitative easing.

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