Nifty falls to 2-1/2 week low on profit-taking

Mumbai: The broader Nifty fell more than 1 percent on Thursday to its lowest in nearly 2-1/2 weeks as lenders such as ICICI Bank were hit by profit-taking even as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stuck to the previous government`s fiscal deficit target.

The Nifty fell as much as 1.4 percent to its lowest level since June 23. Jaitley stuck to the fiscal deficit target of 4.1 percent of gross domestic product for the year ending March 2015 set by the previous government.

The NSE sub-index for banks fell 1.7 percent. ICICI Bank Ltd lost 1.9 percent while HDFC Bank Ltd was down 1.5 percent.

Among other blue-chips, Reliance Industries fell 1.8 percent while Oil and Natural Gas Corp was down 2 percent.