Sensex extremely weak, down 300pts

The key benchmark indices slipped to a fresh intraday low of 16,318,  as heavy weights Reliance Indsutries and ICICI Bank came under tremendous pressure. The Sensex is now at 16,653, down 290 points and the NSE Nifty is 91 points down at 4,995.

Among the Sensex-30 stocks, Jaiprakash Associates has declined 4% to Rs 119. It is followed by Sterlite Industries, Reliance Industries and Hindalco, down over 3% each.

The other major losers are Reliance Communications, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Bharti Airtel and Tata Power, down over 2-3% each on the BSE. While, Maruti Suzuki has advanced 3% to Rs 1,271.

The market breadth has turned negative, out of 2,754 shares traded, 1,569 have declined and 1,099 have advanced so far on the BSE.

The BSE midcap and the smallcap indices are down around 1% each.

All the sectoral indices are in red, metal and the oil&gas indices are the major dragger, down 2.5% each. It is followed by banking and realty indices, down 2% each.

Sesa Goa has shed 5% to Rs 363 and Sterlite Industries has declined 4%, respectively on the metal index.

Reliance Industries and Essar Oil have slipped 3% each to Rs 1,1010 and Rs 120, respectively on the oil&gas index.