Weakness in global markets on the back of overnight dip on Wall Street yesterday on fiscal worries and earnings concerns also kept buyers on the sidelines, said brokers.
State-owned SBI today reported a rise of over 30 per cent in Q2 net profit but its non-performing assets ratio jumped to 5.15 per cent from 4.19 per cent a year ago period. It shares led the fall in Sensex with 3.89 per cent loss.
Another PSU, ONGC, which yesterday posted the steepest fall in quarterly profits in almost 4 years, faced heavy selling with its shares closing 3.05 per cent down.
At the fag-end of trade, Tata Steel reported consolidated loss of Rs 363.90 crore for the July-September quarter, as against Rs 212.40 crore net profit in the year-ago period. Its shares closed over 3.2 per cent down.
The Sensex, which had lost 56 points yesterday, opened higher at 18,894.42 but failed to sustain the initial momentum due to earning disappointments in blue-chips. It finally closed 162.58 points, or 0.86 per cent, lower at 18,683.68.
Among the 30-share index, 26 stocks including ICICI Bank, RIL, Infosys, Tata Steel, L&T, Tata Motors, BHEL and HUL finished with losses.
On similar lines, the National Stock Exchange index Nifty fell by 52.50 points, or 0.91 per cent, to 5,686.25 led by stocks in realty, metal, oil & gas and banks.
Selling was seen across-the-board as all sectoral indices settled 0.19-1.70 per cent lower with PSU, realty, metal, oil&gas and banking shares the worst hit.
"What is worrying markets are the slippages and loan restructuring the banking sector could face in coming quarters... Tata steel disappointed with lower than expected numbers," said Nagji K Rita, CMD, Inventure Growth & Securities. (MORE)
