The Sensex closed in the red for the third consecutive trading session as rate sensitives continued to witness selling pressure. The Sensex shed 116 points at close at 20,184 today, and in the process has declined nearly 400 points in the last three days. In the broader markets, the small-cap and the mid-cap indices were down 1% each underperforming the BSE benchmark index which lost 0.6%.
The NSE Nifty declined 31 points at 6,048.
Earlier in the day, the Sensex had opened in the green but quickly pared its initial gains on back of selling pressure in banking and auto shares. Fertiliser stocks too took a hit as the government deffered the decision on freeing up the urea prices. Almost all the major fertiliser stocks had opened in the red. The day's high for the Sensex was in the opening trades at 20,425 which spiraled down to 20,107( day's low) in the afternoon trades.
On the Asian front, the indices had a weak opening but the markets saw a mixed closing. Shanghai Composite, Jakarta Composite and Seoul Composite lost 0.2% - 1% and Hang Seng and KLSE Composite ended flat while Nikkei, Straits Times and Taiwan Weighted gained 0.4% - 1%
Meanwhile, the European markets opened in the positive. FTSE, CAC and DAX opened higher by 0.3% - 0.5%
Among the sectoral indices, IT was the only sector that closed in the positive. Realty and Capital Goods down 2% each were the major losers on the chart followed by Auto, Consumer Durables and Bankex. FMCG which was one of the top gainers in the morning trades slipped to the bottom of the chart in the afternoon trades, only to recover in the closing hour. In the past six trading sessions, FMCG had outperformed gaining 3.4% as compared to the Sensex gaining only 0.2% in the same period.
Realty which was the top loser for the day had been underperforming for the past one month. This fall was mainly due to the dampening of the investor sentiments as new buyers are facing the brunt of rising property prices and ever increasing interest rates.
The gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco, TCS, NTPC, Bharti Airtel and RIL gained 1% each. HDFC Bank, Tata Steel, Reliance Infrastructure, Infosys and Tata Power added 0.1% - 0.5%
Sterlite, Bajaj Auto, ONGC, Cipla and Maruti Suzuki down 3% each were the top losers followed by L&T, SBI and Jaiprakash Associates shed 2% each.
The market breadth was negative. 1860 stocks had declined while 995 had advanced on the BSE.
Broader Markets
BSE mid and small-cap indices underperformed the benchmark indices today. BSE mid-cap index slipped 1.2% or 97 points to 7,656.
Fertiliser space was weak government deferred the decision to free urea prices. Chambal Fertiliser plunged 8.3% to Rs 80. National Fertiliser tumbled6% to Rs 110. Rashtriya Chemicals slumped 4.6% to Rs 93.
Praj Industries and BGR Energy dipped 6% each to Rs 81 and Rs 670, respectively. Shriram City, Escorts, KSK Energy, Dewan Housing and Hindustan Oil were down 4-5% each.
On the other hand, Emami surged 10% to Rs 434. KGN Industries, Gujarat Flurocarbon, Jain Irrigation, Marico and Karnataka Bank added 3-5% each.
Small-cap index shed 1% at 9,630. Nagarjuna Fertiliser among the small cap stocks crashed 7% to Rs 31. Fame India ropped 6.5% to Rs 86 after Reliance MediaWorks bought about 32% stake in the multiplex operator. SE investment, Omnitech Info, Varun Industries and Everest Kanto were in red.
Meanwhile, Binani Industries soared 13% to Rs 258. Visa Steel, Symphony, Gujarat Natural Resources and Newtimes Infra added 5-7% each.
