The markets have slipped for the second day in a row due to the nervousness across global equities. The Sensex ended at 18070, lower by 149 points, and the Nifty ended at 5420, down 40 points. The midcap index ended at 7545, lower by 37 points and the smallcap index ended at 9642, down 44 points.
The indices had opened with modest gains as Wall Street trimmed its early losses in the wake of new steps promised by the Fed to counter a weak recovery. The Dow Jones, which was down more than 100 points prior to the Fed meet, finally ended with losses of 54 points at 10,644 and Nasdaq lost 28 points at 2,277. But a weak Asia (Hang Seng, Nikkei and other Asian peers suffered losses of 1-2%, with Shanghai being an exception), a faltering Europe (FTSE, CAC, and DAX shaved off around a percent each) and the possibility of a dismal opening on Wall Street (Dow futures down more than 100 points in pre-market trades) forced a bleak close back home.
Tata Steel weakened by more than 3.2% at Rs 520 ahead of its Q1 results scheduled on Thursday to emerge as the top loser among the BSE-50 scrips. HDFC shed 2.3% at Rs 2999 and Wipro lost 2.2% at Rs 418. And Bharti Airtel slipped by 1.4% at Rs 319 after reporting a decline of 32% in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,682 crore during the first quarter ended June 30 due to the foreign exchange losses. And index heavyweight lost further ground, shedding 0.5% at Rs 982.
There was pain on the broader market front as well. Educomp Solutions tumbled 9.7% to Rs 622 after the company reported a mere 7% growth in consolidated net profit to Rs 36 crore for the quarter ended June 2010 compared to Rs 34 crore in the same period a year ago. And the high-beta realty space also saw selling pressure, with the likes of IVRCL weakening by 7.4% at Rs 157, Unitech shedding 3.3% at Rs 86 and India Bulls Real Estate losing 2.5% at Rs 181.
On the other hand, Tata Motors was a stand-out performer for the day. Building on its 4% gains of the previous session, post the announcement of the Q1 numbers, the auto major soared to touch a lifetime high of Rs 1,023 in intra-day trades before ending at Rs 10006, stronger by 5%, on the BSE. The auto major had reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,989 crore for the first quarter ended June 2010, as against a net loss of Rs 329 crore in the same period a year ago. And net sales grew 64% to Rs 26,876 crore from Rs 16,366 crore during the recently concluded quarter. Among the other key gainers of the day, Jindal Steel raced ahead by 3.2% at Rs 654 and Tata Power gained 0.3% at Rs 1333.
The market breadth was weak. Out of 3059 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1208 advancing stocks as against 1739 declines.
