Sensex ends down 296 pts

Sensex ends (provisional) at 17,853 -down 296 points. Nifty ended down 79 points at 5,367.
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(Updated at 1430 hrs)

Markets were in red as political uncertainties continued to dampen investor sentiments. Bourses ignored positive cues from global indices as most of the sectoral indices dropped. The Sensex after a soft opening, slipped to a low of 17,889. The index was down 220 points at 17,932. Nifty, meanwhile, shed 58 points to 5,388.

The political troubles of the ruling UPA government seemed to be far from over as the opposition demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh following a wikileaks cable showing bribes had been given for votes during the Indo-US nuclear treaty. The Congress, which is already burdened by corruption charges, however, denied all such allegations.

Meanwhile, global indices were in the positive zone. Japan seemed to finally recover from its shocking earthquake and nuclear troubles. The Nikkei gained 2.7% at 9,206. Taiwan Weighted and Seoul Composite added over 1% each in trades.

Crude porices remained high as the crisis in Middle East continued. Brent crude was trading at $116.56.

BSE mid and small-cap indices outperformed the benchmark and were down 0.1% and 0.5%, respectively.

Most of the sectoral indices were also in red. However, metal index bucked trends and gained 0.6% to 15,386 as heavyweight Tata Steel said it may hike prices. The stock was up 1.3% at Rs 602. NMDC, Welcorp, JSW Steel, Sail, Bhushan Steel and Sesa Goa were among the big gainers in the sector.

However, BSE oil & gas index shed 2.2% at 9,727. IT, realty and bankex were down - a day after the RBI hiked repo and reverse repo rates by 25 basis points each.

Market heavyweight, Reliance shed 3% at Rs 999. BHEL, Wipro, Cipla, HDFC and TCS were down nearly 2% each. Among other losers were Reliance Infra, HDFC Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys and ONGC.

On the other hand, Bajaj Auto gained 1.3% followed by Maruti Suzuki - up 1% after the Japanese nuclear tension calmed a bit.

Multiplex stocks slipped on news that they would cut down prices in absence of any big releases. Cinemax shed 3.3% at RS 48. Inox was flat at Rs 51. PVR dropped 4% to RS 100. All these stocks had zoomed yesterday.

BSE market breadth was negative. Out of 2,852 stocks traded, 1,581 declined while 1,149 advanced.