The Sensex closed at 18,971 down 164 points and the Nifty shed 54 points to close at 5,694.
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(Updated at 1435 hrs)
The Sensex had slipped further in the past hour to touch a new intra-day low of 18,955, down 269 points from the opening, owing to the selling pressure witnessed in the banking and consumer durbles space. This is in stark contrast to the Asian and European markets which are trading in the green. In the past week, Indian markets have shed 2.4% was the second worst performing Asian market after China down 3.3%. The fall has been largely due to the macro economic issues in the country and change in stance by by the FIIs, who were aggressive buyers for most of April.
Currently, the Sensex is down 146 points at 18,989, off the day's low and the Nifty lost 50 points at 5,699. However, there is some positive news from the industrial production data. Led by crude oil and finished steel, the output of the six core infrastructure industries grew by 7.4% in March, 2011, an improvement from the 6.8% expansion recorded a year ago.
Earlier in the day, the markets opened in the green tracking firm Asian peers, but immediately turned negative few minutes after opening as investors sold banking shares ahead of Reserve Bank of India's policy announcement tomorrow. Thereon the downtrend continued through
the morning. However, in the late morning trades the markets staged a partial recovery on the back of buying interest seen in the realty and health care space.
Meanwhile, market heavyweight, Reliance Industries which has been moving south since the past few days played spoil sport once again during the partial recovery phase dragging the Sensex further down. The markets registered fresh intra-day lows through the afternoon
session.
Navneet Daga, Derivative Analyst, KR Choksey Securities said, "Options data is indicating a further decline on the index to sub 5629 levels and 5600 may act as support because it has maximum open interest build up." Daga added, "If Nifty fails to hold above 5750 on closing
basis for next two to three sessions, we may see selling pressure getting intense in the market towards 5620 levels and a close below 5750 would lead to further long liquidation of positions."
Among the sectoral indices, Bankex index was leading the losses, down 2% since the morning trades. Economists expect 25-50 bps rate hike on Tuesday as food prices continue to remain at elevated levels.From the banking pack, Bank of India down 7.5%, Canara Bank and Union Bank shedding 5% each are the top losers.
The top losers among the Sensex stocks apart from banking scrips are Sterlite, Maruti Suzuki, RIL and Mahindra & Mahindra down 2% each.
The gainers on the BSE benchmark index are Tata Power up 2% followed by Cipla, DLF and Bharti Airtel gaining 1% each.
The market breadth is very negative. Of the total 2866 stocks traded on the BSE, 1830 stocks have declined while 940 have advanced.