Heavyweights drag markets lower

Markets ended lower on Tuesday weighed down by selling pressure in index heavyweight Reliance Industries along with auto and bank shares.

The Sensex ended weaker by 136 points at 18,578 and the 50-share Nifty slipped 39 points to end at 5,648.

For the most part of the day, the markets traded in a tight range with a positive bias. However, post the noon selling pressure erased early gains and the Sensex fell 224 points from the day's high level.

Meanwhile, the European markets were trading marginally higher as investors were buoyed by the latest batch of US data and earnings and hopeful a meeting of European leaders later in the week can advance plans to tackle Spain and Greece's debts.
CAC, DAX and FTSE 100 were up 0.5-0.6% each.

The Asian markets ended on a positive note as investor sentiment improved on the back of an overnight rally in US stocks that was fuelled by better than expected earnings from Citigroup Inc, the third-largest US bank, and above forecast retail sales data.
The Hang Seng, Nikkei, Taiwan Weighted and Seoul Composite ended higher by 0.3-1.4% each.

Back home, Mahindra & Mahindra was the loser among the Sensex stocks. The stock slipped nearly 3% to close at Rs 834 after Credit Suisse downgraded auto maker to “neutral” from “outperform” and recommends investors to switch to Maruti Suzuki India instead.

Tata motors also ended on a weak note, the stock closed weaker by 2.4% at Rs 262 after the company’s global vehicle sales, including that of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), declined by 4.5% to 103,656 vehicles in September from the year-ago period. The country’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturer had sold 108,570 vehicles in the same month of previous year.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries ended down 1.5% at Rs 811 on profit taking after the stock gained over the past one month ahead of its second quarter results announced late Monday.

Bank shares such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI ended lower 0.6-1.6% lower on worries that the central bank may not cut interest rates in wake of high inflation registered in September.

On the contrary, Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, TCS, ITC and HDFC were among the notable gainers.

Selling pressure was visible across the board post the noon deals. The BSE realty index was the top sectoral loser. The index slipped 3% to end at 1,822. Metal, capital goods, power, PSU, auto, bankex, oil & gas, healthcare, IT and FMCG indices also closed on a weak note. While, consumer durable and teck indices held on to some gains.

Among the individual stocks, Axis Bank ended higher by 2.5% at Rs 1,146 on reporting a better-than-expected 22% year-on-year (yoy) growth in net profit at Rs 1,124 crore for the second quarter ended September, 2012.

The performance comes on the back of growth in interest and fee income, as well as lower expenses. Analyst on an average expected profit of Rs 1,116 crore from the private sector bank.

Amrutanjan Health Care soared 5% to Rs 848 extending its 5% gain in past three trading days after the pharmaceutical company fixed a record date of October 29, 2012 for purpose of stock split.

Yes Bank ended weaker by 3.4% at Rs 381 on back of huge bulk deal on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). About 11.34 million shares changed hands through bulk deal on BSE. The buyers and sellers are not immediately known.

GIC Housing Finance surged 7% to Rs 103 on reporting over two-fold jump in the net profit which came in at Rs 23.15 crore for the second quarter ended September 2012 due to higher operational income and lower other expenditure. The housing finance company had profit of Rs 9.30 crore in previous year quarter.

The broader markets also ended on a weak note. The BSE mid-cap index slipped 0.7% to end at 6,633 and the small-cap index shed 0.4% to 7,111 levels.

The overall breadth was negative as 1,714 stocks declined while 1,179 stocks advanced.