Sensex ends down 270pts

The Sensex ends (provisional) down 270 points at 16,848. Nifty ends down 95 points at 5,054.
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(Updated at 1426 hrs)

Markets have slumped suddenly with the Sensex touching a low of 16,981. The index had opened on a cautious note after global markets weakened on fears of the debt crisis spreading further. However, it managed to recover on the back of buying in auto shares. Thereafter, the index remained volatile in a narrow range. The Sensex was down 160 points at 16,956. Nifty down 59 points at 5,089.

Asian shares were down today as changes in the government failed to comfort investors about the strength of the Euro-zone recovery. Hang Seng dropped 0.8% to 19,348. Nikkei added 0.7% to 8,542.

Meanwhile, Macquarie downgraded its India's growth forecast for the year to March 2013 by 1 percentage point to 6.9% due to a lack of policy reforms and the lagged impact of monetary tightening.

All the sectoral indices were in the red with realty, power and banking stocks slumping in trades. Realty shares fell with the BSE realty index dropping 4% to 1,696. DLF fell for the third straight day and was down 5% at Rs 212.

Jaiprakash Associates fell 2.6% to Rs 73 in spite of reporting 11% rise in net profit at Rs 18.65 crore.

Tata Power dropped 2.4% to Rs 98 after reporting a consolidated net loss of Rs 1,219 crore for quarter ended September on account of provision for impairment of Coastal Gujarat Power (CGPL) assets and foreign exchange loss amounting of Rs 1,462 crore. The leading power utility had a consolidated net profit of Rs 673 crore in the same quarter of the last fiscal.

Tata Motors was trading higher by 2% at Rs 182 on reporting a 15% year-on-year drop in profit to Rs 1,880 crore due to higher raw material cost and currency losses. Analysts expected the company to report a net profit of Rs 2,048 crore.

Among pharma stocks, Cipla has rallied 6% at Rs 306 after reporting better-than-expected 17.5% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in net profit at Rs 309 crore for the quarter ended September due to improved realizations, reduction in input costs and higher utilisation of Indore SEZ facilities. The pharma company had posted a net profit of Rs 263 crore in the year-ago period. However, net sales grew 9.6% to Rs 1,732 crore on a y-o-y basis. Ranbaxy was down 2.2% at Rs 473 on fears that Pfizer marketing may hit the company's profit from low-cost lipitor version.

Kingfisher Airlines owner Vijay Mallya today spoke about the recent debt woes of the carrier. Mallya has confirmed that the airlines cannot afford to fly on heavily loss-making routes. He also said that he has not asked government or banks for any bailout package, but wants a working capital from the banks. Shares of Kingfisher was down 1%. However, United Spirits stock has fallen 11.5% at Rs 765 while United Breweries has dropped 4.2%.