Markets end lower, Sensex sheds 94 pts

Gail India, Jindal Steel and ICICI Bank among top Sensex losers

Markets ended Wedesday's trading session on a weak note led by the widespread selling pressure witnessed across the board. The Sensex provisionally ended weaker by 94 points at 17,504 and the Nifty shed 30 points to provisionally close at 5,329.
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(Updated at 1430 hours)

Markets continue to trade on a weak note in the late noon deals led by selling pressure visible across the board. The Sensex is down 123 points at 17,474 and the Nifty has shed 37 points to 5,321 levels.

The Asian markets ended the day on a weak note. The Nikkei slipped 230 points to 9,820 levels and Taiwan shed 102 points to close at 7,760 levels. Hang Seng and Shanghai were closed due to holiday.

The European matrkets have also opened on a weak note. CAC was down 42 points at 3,634, DAX shed 84 points to open at 6,898 and the FTSE was also trading lower by 39 points at 5,799 levels.

Back home, Jindal Steel is the top loser among the Sensex stocks, down 3% to Rs 527. Gail India, ICICI Bank, Sterlite Industries, DLF, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra, HUL, Larsen & Toubro, HDFC, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto are also among the laggards.

On the other hand, BHEL, Maruti Suzuki, Hindalco, ONGC, TCS and ITC are among the notable heavyweight stocks on the BSE.

Realty, metal and banking stocks continue to remain inder intense selling and are amongst the worst hit in the trades thus far. BSE Realty index has slipped, 2% or 36 points to 1,786. Metal and Bankex indices are down over 1% each.

Auto, Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods, FMCG, Teck, Healthcare and IT indices are also trading lower.

Sobha Developers, Unitech, DB Realty, HDIL, DLF, Anant Raj Industries and Suntech Realty are among the top gainers from the realty space.

Among the individual stocks, Bajaj Corp is trading 3% higher at Rs 124 after the company said its promoters will reduce their stake to achieve minimum public shareholding of 25% from the present level of 15.25% by way of further issue of equity shares through Institutional Placement Programme (IIP).

Essar Oil has slipped 6% to Rs 56.20 on reports that the Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed the company’s petition in sales tax case.

The broader markets are trading on a subdued note. The BSE mid-cap index is down 17 points at 6,453 and the small-cap index is up 10 points at 6,828 levels.

The overall breadth is negative as 1,402 stocks are declining while 1,269 stocks are advancing.