Back home, brokers pointed out that the market is keenly watching the political developments at the Centre and awaiting the outcome of an imminent trust vote. The Left today formally withdrew their support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on the Indo-US nuclear deal issue and demanded a trust vote.
Though the government is confident of winning the vote of confidence with the Samajwadi Party's support, political pundits doubt if the UPA will actually be able to reach the magic number of 273.
The other big factor that has been pulling the markets down, oil had its biggest fall since March 31. Crude oil for August delivery slumped 3.8 per cent to $ 136.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYME) yesterday. The futures were at $137.64 in recent trading, down 5.6 per cent from the record high of $145.85 on July 3.
However, crude oil remains a wild card, said market analysts. "There is no panic in the markets as of now since most of the bad news on the political front has been factored in. There could still be global shocks in terms of some write-offs by global financial institutions as also oil prices," said Kamlesh Kotak, Vice-President-Research, Asian Markets Securities.
Crude oil for August delivery rose by $ 2.24 or 1.7 per cent to $138.28 a barrel on the NYME on Wednesday after Iran test-fired a long-range missile and the fall in dollar.
Top gainers in Wednesday's market include stocks such as Reliance Infrastructure (up 10.66 per cent to Rs 835.45 a share), Jaiprakash Associates (up 10 per cent to Rs 173.3 a share) and Tata Motors (up 7.49 per cent to Rs 404.55 a share).
The stocks of companies likely to benefit from the nuclear deal witnessed a sharp rally on Wednesday. They include Larsen and Toubro (up 4.7 per cent to Rs 2,512.95 a share), Bharat Heavy Electrical (up 5.14 per cent to Rs 1,575.3 a share), National Thermal Power Corporation (up 4.34 per cent to Rs 168.2 a share) and Alstom Projects (up 8.49 per cent to Rs 438.95 a share).
Foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 435.54 crore and domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 139.22 crore. A total of 2,130 stocks were on the advancing side while 529 stocks were on the decline in Wednesday's trading session.
