The markets closed in the red for the third consecutive day of the week as heavyweights RIL, SBI and ONGC winessed selling pressure through the day. The BSE benchmark index closed the day down 51 points at 18,086 and the Nifty shed 18 points to end at 5,420.The broader markets reacted even more sharply with the smallcap index closing at 8,189, down 0.8% and the midcap index shedding 0.6% to close at 6,762, both underperforming the Sensex down nearly 0.3%
Earlier in the day, markets opened marginally higher tracking firm Asian cues, but immediately turned negative, few minutes after opening as investors turned jittery over earnings growth concerns. After that the markets turned choppy, dipping to the day's low of 18,021, down 157 points from the opening. Thereafter the markets retraced considerable ground from the lows of early noon.A K Prabhakar, Senior Vice President Equity Research, Anand Rathi says technically market is looking weak, and 8-10% correction in short term is looking possible and on fundametal basis a good correction would make the market attractive for fresh investment.
The top Sensex gainers for the day were HDFC at Rs 646 and Hero Honda at Rs 1836 each up 2% each were the top gainers among the Sensex stocks. Maruti Suzuki, Wipro, Tata Power, Hindalco and DLF which added 1% each were the other noteable gainers.
Reliance Infrastructure down 4%, Tata Motors, Reliance Communication, SBI, Jaiprakash Associates and ONGC which lost between 1-3% were the top losers among the Sensex stocks.
Oil stocks had a rough ride due to a slump on the RIL counter which spread across into the oil marketing space too. Reliance Industries (RIL) closed down 2% at Rs 901, which was the lowest since February 14, 2011. The downfall was due to the oil ministry and its technical arm DGH ordering the company to drill two wells by next month and another nine by fiscal end to raise gas output. OMCs were also reeling under pressure as under-recoveries will still remain high despite the recent hike of Rs 5/litre in petrol prices and the likelihood of similar action on the diesel front.
Among the sectoral indices, IT space saw some renewed buying interest and was the top gainer along with FMCG, both up 0.2% each. All the other sectoral sectoral indices closed in the negative with Oil & Gas and PSu leading the losses, down nearly 2% each.
The Auto index closed for the day down nearly 1% . Baja Auto which posted its Q4 result today closed down 1.6% at Rs 1286 after reporting a net profit of Rs 1,400 cr for the quarter ended March 31, 2011, which marks a 165% jump from Rs 528.6 crore reported for the corresponding period a year ago. In the banking space, SBI has extended its previous session's losses by another 2% to close at Rs 2355 after reporting a dismissal set of numbers.
The market breadth was very negative. Of the total 2911 stocks traded on the BSE, 1751 stocks declined while 1018 gained.
