Sensex ends below 16K, realty & metals slide

The markets slipped 2% as investors turned cautious and booked profits ahead of Ben Bernanke’s speech later in the day, heavy selling in realty and metal shares also weighed.

The Nifty touched a high of 4,861 in the morning sessinon, but gave up all the gains and closed at 4,747, down 92 points, and the Sensex slipped below 16K and closed at 15,862, down 284 points.

--------------------------Updated at 14:41 hours

Asian markets ended on a subdued note over concerns that the Federal Reserve may not be left with any rabbits in its hat to bolster the ailing economy, after the government spend $2.3 trillion in a massive bond buying program since 2009.

The Hang Seng and Shanghai were down 0.1% and 0.8% each, and Nikkei Stock Average ended up 0.3%. European markets too followed suit and were trading in the red; FTSE, CAC and DAX were trading down between 0.5-1.6%.

Back home, Reliance Industries, State Bank of India and ITC accounted for a loss of 90 points on the Sensex. Other prominent losers were HDFC, Tata Steel and NTPC– down 1-4% each.
Only five components on the Sensex were trading in the green. Hero Motocorp, Mahindra & Mahindra and Infosys were up 2% each.

High-beta realty shares were leading the losses on expectations that the Reserve Bank of India will continue its aggressive monetary policy stance and tighten further in September, despite downside risks to growth after week-on-week inflation was reported at double digits yesterday. DLF plunged over 4%, Unitech and Anant Raj Industries declined over 3.5% each.

Metals were the next worst hit. Sesa Goa slipped almost 6% each, Hindustan Zinc and SAIL were off over 2%.

From the broader markets, midcap and the small cap indices were trading down almost 2% each.

Market breadth was extremely negative, 1,952 stocks have declined, for 740 stocks which advanced on BSE.