Sensex ends down 150 pts

The Sensex has ended (provisional) at 17,211 - down 150 points. Nifty has ended at 5175 - down 46 points.
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(Updated at 1423 hrs)

Markets are on recovery path in late noon trades. The Sensex slumped to a low of 17,096 following dismal IIP data. However, the index has recovered marginally to 17,253 - down 108 points. Nifty is down 41 points at 5,179.

Continuing its dismal performance, industrial growth fell further to 1.9% in September, mainly due to poor output from the manufacturing sector.

Growth in factory output, as measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), stood at 6.1% in September last year, as per the latest data released here. The IIP growth figure for August this year has been revised downward to 3.59% from the provisional estimate of 4.1%.

Meanwhile, leading rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) upgraded India’s banking industry on Thursday, terming the country’s domestic regulations in line with international standards. BSE bankex dropped 2.4% to 10,757. ICICI Bank was the biggest dragger - down 4% at Rs 827. SBI was down 3% while HDFC Bank slipped 2% in trades.

BSE capital goods, metal and realty indices dropped 2% each in trades.

Tata Steel tumbled 3.6% to Rs 432 after weak Q2 results. The company reported 93% year-on-year (y-o-y) decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 139 crore for Q2FY12 due to higher raw material costs. The Tata Group company had clocked a profit of Rs 1,968 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. However, net sales grew 16% to Rs 32,507 crore on a y-o-y basis. The company's total expenditure also went up to Rs 31,157 crore during the quarter against Rs 26,052 crore in the year-ago period.

Among other metal stocks, Hindalco slipped 4% to Rs 129 as a weak outlook weighed on investor setiments. Hindalco's net profit stood at Rs 503 crore for Q2FY12 against Rs 434 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal; its revenues were Rs 6,272 crore against Rs 5,860 crore in the same quarter in 2010-11. Analysts expected the Aditya Birla group company to register a net profit of Rs 511 crore from during the recently concluded quarter.

Meanwhile, Kingfisher has dropped 10% to Rs 19.45. The airline, which has been cancelling flights across several routes, faces fresh trouble as some companies who have lent aircraft to the loss-making airline plans to take them back, while about 130 staff pilots have quit in the past few weeks.

Trial today commenced in a Delhi court in the 2G spectrum allocation case in which former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi, corporate honchos and telecom firms are among the high-profile accused. Stocks related to the scam - Sun TV Network, DB Realty, Unitech and Reliance Communications have slipped 1-4% each.