Markets correct; Sell-off in realty & metal stocks

Markets are seeing selling pressure due to weakness in realty and metal stocks. The Sensex has fallen by 86 points to 18322 and Nifty has dropped 37 points to 5506.

Metal stocks lose sheen, Sterlite Industries and Sesa Goa, down 2% to Rs 155 and Rs 321 each, Hindustan Zinc, down almost 3% to Rs 1085, after the environment ministry rejected Vedanta Resources' plan for bauxite mining in Orissa. Vedanta Resources PLc has a controlling stake in Sterlite Industries, Sesa Goa and Hindustan Zinc.

BSE metal index has dipped 1.3% to 15,281; Technical Analyst Shardul Kulkarni from Angel Securities says as long as the BSE metals index does not give a convincing breakout above 15700, do not expect momentum in metal counters.

The realty index has fallen by 2% to 3,625; HDIL, down 3.4% to Rs 286, Sobha Developers and DLF have corrected over 2% to Rs 368 and Rs 322 respectively. Kulkarni says 'We are bullish on realty; expect Unitech and DLF to do well in the next 4 to 6 weeks.'

Even the broader markets are trading in the red, midcap and smallcap indices have fallen 0.5% to 0.3% each

FMCG is the only index trading in the green led by gains in Nestle, up 1.4%, Tata Global, up 1%.

The top losers on the Sensex are HDFC, down 1.5%, HDFC Bank, down 1.4%, Maruti Suzuki and JP Associates, down by 1.1%.

Out of seven Sensex stocks trading in the green, Bharti Airtel is up 2.5%, Rcom and TCS are up by over 1%.

The market breadth has turned negative on the BSE; there are 1579 stocks declining for 1152 advancing stocks.