Markets extend losses; banks, IT tank

The markets have extended losses in the last one hour of trade, the Sensex has now shed 234 points at 19,299, and the Nifty is lower by 76 points at 5787 on the back of intense selling pressure visible across all the sectors.

According to Deepak Singh Tanwar, a Mumbai-based technical analyst "The outlook for the Nifty still remains negative though it did manage to cross its immediate resistance level of 5850."

Infosys continued to remain the top loser, down 4% at Rs 3234, HDFC Bank shed 3% and was trading at Rs 2139. ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Tata Steel, Hero Honda, HDFC, Jindal Steel and Wipro were also among the losers.

Reliance Communication, Tata Motors, ONGC, DLF and Bajaj Auto were some notable gainers.

On the sectoral front all the indices were trading in the negative zone. Weak investor sentiment towards the banking stocks was visible as the BSE banking index- Bankek was the top sectoral loser, the index shed nearly 3% or 366 points at 12,249. BSE IT index shed 2.8% or 190 points at 6481. Teck, Consumer Durables Healthcare and Metal indices were down more than 1% each. FMCG, PSU, Oil & Gas and Power stocks also reeled under the selling pressure.

Among the banking stocks, Indusind Bank shed more than 3.6% and was trading at Rs 234, followed by Yes Bank, Punjab National Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank were trading lower by more than 3%. Axis Bank, State Bank of India, Union Bank, Bank of India and IDBI Bank were also trading lower by more than 2%. Infosys, Financial Technologies, Oracle Financial Services, Wipro, Core Projects, and HCL Tech were among the top losers on the IT charts.

The broader markets also slipped in the negative zone, the BSE mid-cap index was down 41 points or 0.5% at 7327 and the small-cap index was down 14 points at 9133.

Shree Ashtavinaka Cine Vision, Shree Renuka Sugar, Anant Raj Industries, Indian Overseas Bank, Godfrey Philips, Whirlpool and Uco Bank were the top losers on the mid-cap index. Among the small-cap stocks Zenith Info was the top loser followed by Bheema Cements, Sigrun Holdings, SVC Resources, LS Industries, Spectacle and Reliance Broadcast Network down more than 5% each.

The overall market breadth turned negative as 1,592 stocks declined while 1,130 stocks advanced.