Sensex slips below 14k and Nifty below 4200 in intra-day trades,

Sensex slips below 14k in intra-day trades, ends 187 pts down

As the bears stayed away for a better part of the morning, the market enjoyed a bright, albeit a bit listless, spell with a few blue chip stocks, including index heavyweight Reliance Industries, posting handsome gains.

But the buoyancy did not last long. As concerns over inflation and the possibility of the Apex bank coming out with tight monetary measures started playing on the minds of the investors, the market began sliding down sharply. Uncertainties on the political front also dampened the sentiment. There were a couple of smart rallies from lower levels, thanks largely to some short-covering in select blue chip stocks, but the market plunged sharply into the red once again during the closing minutes and finished on a highly negative note for the fourth successive session.

The Sensex, which opened well and touched a high of 14,432.90 in early trade but plunged below the 14,000 mark towards the closing minutes, ended the day with a loss of 186.74 points or 1.31% at 14,106.58. The Nifty, which dropped down to a low of 4156.10 today, closed 1.76% or 75.30 points down at 4191.10.

Metal, PSU, FMCG, IT, auto, bank and realty stocks went down sharply. Power, capital goods and pharma stocks were not spared either. The indices tracking the performance of stocks from these sectors, ended lower by 1.25% - 3.5%. The Oil & Gas index ended just marginally down, thanks mainly to some strong buying in Reliance Industries which ended with a sharp gain of 2.2% today. The Reliance counter attracted attention on reports that the company has acquired the polyester manufacturing facility of Unifi Kinston in North Carolina for about $12.2 million.
HDFC (2.35%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (2.35%), BHEL (2.2%), Jaiprakash Associates (1.25%), State Bank of India (0.6%) and Cipla (0.45%) were the other gainers from the Sensex.

Hindustan Unilever slipped by as much as 5.3% today. Tata Steel ended with a loss of 4.6%. NTPC, ONGC, Larsen & Toubro, Ambuja Cements and HDFC Bank lost 3% - 4%.
Infosys Technologies eased by 2.95%. Grasim Industries lost 2.75%. Reliance Communications (down 2.65%), Hindalco (down 2.45%), ACC (down 2.25%), ICICI Bank (down 2.2%), ITC (down 2.2%), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 2.1%), Wipro (down 1.95%), Tata Consultancy Services (down 1.6%), DLF (down 1.4%), Maruti Suzuki (down 1.4%), Tata Motors (down 1.35%), Satyam Computer Services (down 1.2%) and Bharti Airtel (down 1%) ended with sharp losses. Reliance Infrastructure closed with a loss of 0.6%.


Nalco (down 9.05%) was the biggest loser in the Nifty index. Sun Pharmaceuticals lost 6.75%. Tata Power shed 6.25%. Siemens and Sterlite Industries went down by 5.3% and 5.15% respectively. GAIL India, Hero Honda, Idea Cellular, Power Grid, Tata Communications, Cairn India and Reliance Petroleum also finished with sharp losses today.

Mirroring heavy selling in midcap and smallcap segments, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices declined by 1.76% and 1.82% respectively. The market breadth was very weak. Out of 2707 stocks traded on BSE, 1925 stocks closed with losses. 718 stocks posted gains and 64 stocks ended at their previous closing levels.


Source: Sify.com