Markets slip fourth straight day, shed 25% in 2011

Benchmark share indices ended the last trading day of 2011 on a weak note due to selling pressure in index heavyweight Reliance Industries.

Reliance Industris slipped 3% to end below Rs 700 mark at Rs 692, its lowest level since 23 March 2009, on concerns that of falling gas output from KG-D6, uncertainties over production sharing contracts and pressure on refining margins.

The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended at 15,417 down 126 points and the 50-share Nifty ended at 4,624 down 22 points.

For the calendar year 2011, the Sensex ended at  15,417 down 5,052 points or 24.6% and the Nifty ended at  4,624 down 1,517      points or  24.6%, compared to their previous close on December 31, 2010.

 

 

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(Updated at 14:35hrs)

Markets have slumped sharply in late noon trades on selling pressure in Reliance Industries. The Sensex had earlier touched a high of 15,724 but dropped into the red. The BSE benchmark index has now dropped 99 points to 15,448. Nifty is down 26 points at 4,620.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 1015.82 crore on Thursday as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. Markets would be looking at corporate earnings which will start trickling in mid-January for direction going forward.

On the global front, European markets are flat. Dow Jones futures lost 29 points.

BSE oil & gas index slipped 1.5% to 7,522 as Reliance erased morning gains. BSE metal and bankex shed nearly 1% each. However, the IT index continued to be firm and was up 0.4% in trades.

Reliance Industries was the top loser among Sensex stocks - down 3% at Rs 693. From the metal pack, Jindal Steel, Sterlite and Tata Steel dropped 1-2% each.

Tata Power, DLF, Hindustan Unilever, SBI and ICICI Bank were the other major losers.

"In the short term we have seen massive performance for HUL. It’s a time to take profit on medium to short term positions but for long term (12 months) stocks is attractive at current and more on declines up to 380. ITC will remain range bound between 220/190. FMCG as a pack is very strong and we should be buyer," said Shrikant Chouhan, Sr. Vice President (Technical Research), Kotak Securities.

On the other hand, Coal India was up 0.8% at Rs 301. IT shares - TCS and Infosys added half a per cent each.

Public sector undertakings (PSU) such as State Trading Corporation (STC), Hindustan Copper, Dredging Corporation and MMTC have rallied more than 10% each on the back of huge volumes.

The market breadth turned weak with 1,422 shares declining while 1,224 shares advancing .