Markets snap 2-day gains on growth concerns

Indian stock markets ended lower amid a volatile trading session Friday, snapping two-day gains, as investors booked profits on rising concerns that India's growth is likely to be lower than the central bank's revised forecast of 7.6% for 2011-12.

The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended at  15,731 down 82 points or 0.5% and the 50-share Nifty ended at  4,714  down 20 points or 0.4%.

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(Updated at 14:23 hrs)

Markets have slipped into negative zone in late noon trades with Infosys and Bharti Airtel leading the decline.

By 1430 hrs, the Sensex was down 46 points at 15,766 and the Nifty has dropped 12 points to 4,722.

Among the Index heavyweights Reliance Industries is down 0.3%, Bharti Airtel has dropped by 2% and Infosys has slipped 1%. Other Sensex losers include, JP Associates and NTPC have fallen between 2-3%. ONGC is down 1.3%.

Telecom shares have seen selling pressure on reports that the telecom ministry has asked service providers to discontinue their 3G roaming agreements, which will lead to a significant loss of revenues to the government.  Bharti Airtel is down 1% and Idea Cellular slipped 2.5%.

The capital goods stocks are witnessing renewed buying interest. Capital goods shares have gained on value buying at lower after they were beaten down following dismal industrial output data. Capital goods stocks such as BHEL and Larsen & Toubro are leading the gainers chart on the Sensex, up 3% and 2%, respectively.

In the banking space, ICICI Bank is up 0.7%, SBI has gained 1.2% and HDFC Bank is up 0.6%.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries is up 0.9% at 762.

From the realty sector, Anant Raj Industries is the top gainer, up 12% at Rs 41. It is followed by Prestige Estates, HDIL, Phoenix Mills, Godrej Properties, DB Realty and Unitech have also added 1-5% each.

Amongst other shares, ABB has shot up 5% as the company received Rs 4,000 crore worth of UHVDC power transmission order.

MBL Infra has jumped 3.14% to Rs 105 after the company announced that is has secured fresh orders aggregating to Rs 315.79 cr from the various government departments such as NHAI, Railways, Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and Public Works Department (PWD), Haryana.

Suzlon Energy has gained 3% at Rs 19.20 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) after the company announced that it has secured orders worth Rs 935 crore.

Hindustan Motors has jumped 6.5%. The company entered into Bangladesh markets for producing taxis and made JV with local group for assembly unit near Dhaka, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting Business Standard.

Monnet Ispat has rallied 6% to Rs 380 after its board approved the buyback of its own shares at a maximum price of Rs 500 a share.

The broader markets have outperformed the benchmark indices. The BSE mid-cap index is up nearly 0.5% and the small-cap index has gained 1.2%.

The overall market breadth is positive as 1,544 stocks are advancing while 1,046 are declining.