Market frittered away early gains and ended deep in the red on frenzied across-the-board selling towards the tail-end as the benchmark CNX Nifty slipped below the important 5,500 mark and ended at seven-month low on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) today.
The fifth consecutive session's unwinding in sectors like FMCG, energy, banking, technology and pharma pulled down the 50-share index by 48 points.
After a positive start, the key NSE barometer quickly retraced the 5,600 level in the morning trade following firm buying in beaten down heavyweight counters amid positive global cues. However, it failed to maintain the momentum and gave away some early gains on profit taking at higher levels.
The late afternoon trade saw a sudden burst of selling as funds and domestic investors dumped stocks.
Globally, most Asian markets rallied with Japanese stocks hitting fresh multi-year highs following the extraordinary easing measures adopted by the Bank of Japan amid positive inflation data from China.
European peers were trading higher on better-than- expected results from US aluminium giant Alcoa as a strong start to the US earnings season lifted investor sentiment.
The Nifty fluctuated between a high of 5,603.05 and a low of 5,487 before settling at 5,495.10, registering a sharp fall of 47.85 points, or 0.86 per cent, from the last close.
RInfra, ONGC, Gail, SBIN, PNB, Tata Power, Kotak Bank, BPCL, Infosys and BHEL were the top Nifty losers. Notable gainers included Cairn, Tata Motors, TCS, Ambuja Cement, NTPC, UltraTech, Sun Pharma, Sesa Goa, Jindal Steel and ACC.
Turnover in the cash segment rose to Rs 9,519.30 crore from Rs 7,156.41 crore yesterday. A total of 5,603.30 lakh shares changed hands in 48,39,117 trades. Market capitalisation stood at Rs 61,20,379 crore.
