Markets slump to day's low

Volatile markets have slumped to the day's low after recovering most of its gains in late noon trades. Selling pressure can be seen in realty and oil stocks.

The Sensex, after opening with a positive gap, had dropped to a low of 19,716 as heavyweight, RIL, declined. A probable rate hike in China had been the cause of worry for investors. The index,thereafter, started to recover but has again dropped. The Sensex is now down 280 points at 19,654.

Nifty is trading at 5,911 - down 86 points.

Markets have been trading with a negative bias for the past couple of session. Yesterday the Nifty fell in morning trades. The index, helped by a late recovery, had ended up 10 points at 5,999.

"We believe this is part of the normal correction process and the medium-to-long term uptrend remains intact. We have always maintained that any knee-jerk short-term correction in markets as response to global events should be looked at as an opportunity to accumulate quality stocks", says Gaurav Dua, Head-Research, Sharekhan.

BSE mid and small cap indices have also slipped. The mid-cap index has underperformed and is now own 1% at 8,165.

Asian markets ended in the green. Seoul Composite added 0.7% to 1,940. Shanghai Composite advanced 1%. Jakarta was up 1% at 3,725.

European markets, however, are weak owing to continued worries about Ireland's debt. The FTSE is down 0.5%, while CAC is down 0.3% in trades.

BSE realty index has plunged over 3% to 3,200. Oil & gas, metal, Bankex have shed 1-2% each.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) advised the government to cancel 69 of the 127 licenses given to six companies including Etisalat DB (earlier known as Swan Telecom), Uninor (Unitech), Videocon (Datacom), Loop Telecom and Aircel. Following the reports, stocks fell. Videocon has plunged 7% to Rs 219. Reliance Communications has shed 3% at Rs 150. Unitech has dropped 4% in trades.

However, Bharti Airtel has added 2.3% to Rs 333 after the company unveiled its new logo as it crossed the significant milestone of 200 million customers. The telecom giant has launched the new logo in 19 countries across the African and Asian continent.