Markets under pressure, Sensex down 130 pts

The markets continued to witness selling pressure in the noon deals. The Sensex was at 18,271, down 161 points and the S&P CNX Nifty shed 51 points to 5,495.

The Asian markets were also trading on a weak note. Taiwan was down 50 points at 8,767, Nikkei shed 146 points to 9,901 and the Hang Seng was at 22,388, down 154 points.

Back home, most of the Sensex stocks were trading lower. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was the top loser, down 2.72% to Rs 837. J P Associates shed 2.3% to Rs 70. Sterlite Industries, Jindal Steel, Hindalco, State Bank of India, Wipro, Infosys, HDFC, HDFC Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra also shed 1.4-2.2% each.

on the other hand, ITC, Hero Honda, Maruti Suzuki, BHEL, ICICI Bank and Bharti Airtel were among the notable gainers.

All the sectoral indices barring BSE FMCG index were trading in the negative territory. BSE Metal index was the top sectoral loser, down nearly 2% or 274 points to 14,391. BSE Oil & Gas index was down 1.4% or 130 points at 8,922. IT, Bankex, Realty, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods and PSU indices were trading lower by 0.6-1.3% each. At the same time FMCG index advanced 0.5% to 4,045 levels.

JSW Steel was the top loser among the metal stocks. It slipped 4.4% to Rs 824. Welspun Corp, Bhushan Steel, Sterlite Industries,
SAIL, Jindal Saw, NALCO and Hindalco also declined 2-3% each in trades so far. Among the oil & gas stocks Reliance Industries, HPCL, Cairn India, Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum were among the top losers.

Meanwhile, among the FMCG stocks ITC advanced nearly 2% to Rs 205. the stock gained on back of robust numbers posted by the company. It reported an increase of 24.64% to Rs 1,330 crore versus Rs 1070.3 crores on Y-o-Y basis. Net sales came in at Rs 5,767 crore versus Rs 4,816.6 crore.

The broader markets were also trading on a weak note. The BSE mid-cap index was at 6,980, down 44 points and the small-cap index shed 66 points to 8,373.

The overall breadth was extremely negative as 1,806 stocks were declining while 838 stocks were advancing.