The markets shed weight for the second consecutive day due to the force of global pressures. The Sensex ended at 18179, lower by 131 points and Nifty ended at 5462, down 42 points, with realty, metal and auto stocks doing the major damage. The midcap and smallcap indices weakened by 1.4% at 7714 and 9759 respectively.
The Sensex had shed 97 points on Tuesday on the back of weak set of cues from the global front. With the nervousness worldwide showing no signs of abating, we were in for another bad day. And even the attempted pullback midway through the noon session was immediately sold into.
US stocks had fallen to their lowest level in seven weeks overnight as an unexpectedly large drop in home sales ratcheted up concerns that the economic recovery was even weaker than had been feared. The Dow fell 133 points to 10,040 and Nasdaq lost 35 points to 2,123. Asian stocks continued with their previous session's weakness as investors moved out of risky sectors after a spate of worrying US economic data. Japan's Nikkei fell 1.7% to its lowest close since April 2009 on disappointment over the lack of policy action by authorities to rein in the strong yen. And Shanghai and Taiwan lost around 2% each. Hang Seng ended flat, though. And the European markets, including the CAC, FTSE and DAX, were trading lower by about half a percent each half way through the session after Standard & Poor's cut Ireland's credit ratings.
The high-beta realty index shed more than 3% to emerge as the top sectoral loser on the BSE, and the steel and auto indices shed more than a percent each. DLF was the leading individual loser at Rs 311, down 3.3%, on the BSE. Among the other realty scrips, Indiabulls Real Estate shed 3.7% at Rs 179, Unitech lost 3.6% at Rs 80 and HDIL lost 3.4% at Rs 375.
Metal stocks fell as the LMEX index on the London Metal Exchange declined by almost 4% in the last six trading sessions and 2% on Tuesday to end at one-month lows. Tata Steel weakened by 3.2% at Rs 497 and Hindalco shed 2.9% at Rs 163. Metal demand, already a matter of concern in the wake of the European economic crisis, was further aggravated by the recent data releases from the US and China. And the auto pack saw Hero Honda weakening by 2.3% at Rs 1845, Tata Motots shedding 1.8% at Rs 991 and Maruti losing 1.2% at Rs 1220.
Meanwhile, Cairn slipped 2.8% at Rs 344 after the oil ministry said Indian oil PSUs will not make a counter bid for the company as its valuations were already high. Cairn India had rallied on hopes that there would be counter offer from PSU oil companies. And index heavyweight RIL edged lower by 0.4% at Rs 968.
Among the stocks to buck the weak trend, Sterlite strengthened by 1% at Rs 154, ONGC gained 0.3% at Rs 1277 and ITC added 0.3% at Rs 160.
The market breadth was weak. Out of 3063 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 839 advancing stocks as against 2109 declines.
