Markets under pressure, Sensex slips 330pts

Markets continued to reel under the intense selling pressure in the noon deals. The Sensex shed 330 points to 16,755 and the S&P CNX Nifty shed 101 points to 5,037. Earlier in the day the markets  witnessed a gap down opening on back of the negative global cues.

According to Ravi Nathani, Technical analyst, Nsetoday.com, "Nifty has strong support at 5034 & 5010."

Meanwhile, the European markets have opened in the red adding to worries in the Indian markets. CAC40 index opened at 3107 down 1.6%, FTSE opened lower by 1.3% at 5,381 and DAX was at 5813, down 1.7%.

Back home, most of the Sensex stocks were trading in the red. HDFC was the top loser, down 5% to Rs 643. J P Associates shed 3.6% to Rs 70. ICICI Bank, DLF, Tata Power, Sterlite Industries, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Wipro, Hindalco, Tata Steel Hero MotoCorp and Reliance Industries were also trading lower by 2-3% each. On the other hand, Sun Pharma and Maruti Suzuki were among the gainers.

Among individual stocks, M&B Switchgears has listed at Rs 180, a 3% discount against its issue price of Rs 186 per share on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The stock is currently trading at Rs 176 and has hit a low of Rs 155 so far.

Bajaj Finserv has rallied 6% to Rs 579 after reporting more than two-fold rise in net profit to Rs 158 crore in the September quarter on the back of healthy growth in income from the insurance businesses.

Crompton Greaves has slipped 6% to Rs 135, extending Wednesday’s over 12% fall, after reporting weak financial numbers in the last two successive quarters.

All the sectoral indices were trading in the red. Metal, realty and banking stocks were amongst the worst hit in trades thus far. The BSE metal index plunged 2.1% or 238 points to 11,082. Realty index was down 39 points at 1,807 and the Bankex slipped 1.9% to 11,052 levels. Auto, Oil & Gas, Power, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods and IT indices also shed 1-1.8% each.

NMDC, Sesa Goa, Sterlite Industries, Hindalco, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Bhushan Steel, SAIL and Coal India were the top losers among the metal stocks.

The broader markets also shed over 0.5% each. The BSE mid-cap index was at 6,146, down 40 points and the small-cap index ended 6,856, lower by 42 points.

Overall breadth was negative as 1,663 stocks were declining while 799 stocks were advancing.

On the macro economic front, the government released the inflation figures for the week ended October 8. Food articles inflation came in at 10.6% compared 9.12% during the previous week. Fuel group inflation surged to 15.71%  and the the primary article inflation grew to 11.18% versus 10.6% on a weekly basis.