Markets see sharp sell-off

The markets are reeling under selling pressure this afternoon. Both the benchmark indices have already shaved off nearly 2% and we still have an hour to go. The Sensex is quoting at the day's low of 18254, weaker by 430 points and the Nifty has broken below the psychological mark of 5500 at 5466, down 137 points.

There is a sea of red all around. All the sectoral indices on the BSE are trading lower; the realty index has plunged 6.1% at 2250, while the auto index has slipped by 4.4% at 8757 and the metal index has lost 3.3% at 15925. And only three of the Senmsex-50 stocks are trading in the green. In fact, about 35 out of 50 shares on Nifty were trading below 200 DMA (daily moving average) while 15 out of 50 stocks were trading below 10% of their 200 DMA.

DLF has plunged by 8.1% at Rs 220 to top the list of losers on the BSE and extend its losses of the previous day. The realty major had tumbled by 5.4% on Thursday. In the auto space, M&M has lost 6.6% at Rs 684 and Tata Motors has slid by 5.5% at Rs 1128. And the metal space has seen the likes of Hindalco weakening by 5.2% at Rs 220 and Sterlite losing 3.5% at Rs 163. And index heavyweight RIL has shaved off 2.9% at Rs 915.

On the other hand, ONGC has strengthened by 1.2% at Rs 1128 ahead of its Q3 results scheduled later in the day and on the news that it struck shale gas reserves in its maiden well in West Bengal. Wipro has gained 0.3% at Rs 440 and HDFC Bank has added 0.3% at Rs 2048 after HDFC Bank also zoomed 1% after reporting a 33% rise in net profit on back of rise in loan demands and higher fee income.

The market breadth is pre-dominantly negative. Out of 2932 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 375  advancing stocks as against 2489 declines.