Downtrend continues, rate sensitives weigh

The Sensex continues to slip in the afternoon trades with no apparent news to cheer the markets at large. The BSE benchmark index registered a new intra-day low of 18,599, down 425 points from the day's high since the RBI policy was announced in the early afternoon.Rate sensitives like Auto, Bankex and Realty indices are leading the losses. Currently, the Sensex is down 379 points down at 18,618 while the Nifty shed 116 points at 5,585.

Earlier in the day, the Sensex swung between the red and the green before the policy was announced. Strengthening its already hawkish stance on sticky inflation numbers, the Reserve Bank of India announced a 50 basis points hike in repo and reverse repo rates, thus introducing another season of monetary tightening to reign in unabating inflation figures. This spooked the markets which witnessed a sudden sell off in the rate sensitives.

All the sectoral indices continue to trade in the negative. The IT index is the least affected in an otherwise very negative market, shedding 0.5% at 6,117. On the other hand, Auto and Bankex indices are the most battered, down 3% each. Realty index closely follows at 12.8% in the negative. The draggers in the auto space are Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto down 4% each.

The only gainers among the Sensex-30 stocks are BHEL, Reliance Infrastructure and Infosys gaining between 0.3-0.4%.

The major losers among the Sensex stocks are Jaiprakash Assocites down 7%, SBI, L&T, ICICI Bank and Jindal Steel shed 2-3%

The market breadth is very negative. Of the total 2861 stocks traded on the BSE, 2105  stocks declined while 657 advanced.