Sensex closes down 202 pts

The Sensex closed lower for the second consecutive day with the Sensex closing down 202 points at 18,142 and the Nifty shed 58 points to close at 5,440.
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(Updated at 1439 hrs)
The markets continue to hover around the day' slow into the last hour of trading. The Sensex is down 231 points at 18,114 and the Nifty shed 67 points at 5,431. In the broader markets, the midcap index is down 1% in line with the  Sensex while the smallcap index  lost 0.8%.

The benchmark indices had a muted opening and were trading in a sideways manner throughout most of the session, raising hopes of a relatively stable trading day after the nearly 200-pts fall (Sensex) witnessed on Monday. But the result announcement of State Bank of India proved to be ominous.Thereafter, the sensex dropped to touch the day's low of 18,097. down 339 points from the day's high.

In results that were below street expectations, the country's largest public sector bank reported an 8.9% dip in its consolidated net profit at Rs 10,684.9 crore for the year ended March 31, 2011. For the year-ago period, the net profit was Rs 11,733.8 crore. The stock has slid by nearly 8% at Rs 2412.

ONGC has plunged by 6% to Rs 280 on reports that the government has increased upstream share to 38.5% of total subsidy burden of about Rs 77922 crore for the year ended March 2011 (FY 2011).

Index heavyweight RIL is hurtling towards the 900 mark yet again, sliding by 2.4% at Rs 921.And there is no respite for auto stocks as they have been hammered on fears that rising fuel prices and interest rates may dampen demand.

The top losers among the Sensex stocks (other than the ones mentined above) are Hero Honda, Jaiprakash Associates, NTPC, ICICI Bank, Reliance Infrastructure, Tata Motors and Tata Steel losing between 1-3%

Among the gainers are Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Jindal Steel and TCS up 1% each.

The market breadth is very negative. Of the total 2832 stocks traded on the BSE, 1778 stocks have advanced while 937 declined.