Sensex sheds 125pts

The Sensex finally ended (provisional) with a loss 125 points at 17,953. The NSE Nifty shed 36 points to 5394.
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(Updated at 1415 hrs)

The benchmark indices have slipped this afternoon on the back of weakness in select index heavyweights such as RIL and ICICI Bank. The Sensex has slipped below the 18k mark and is now quoting at 17994, lower by 83 points and the Nifty is at 5405, down 25 points. The midcap and smallcap indices ar'e, however, trading flat at 7375 and 9365 respectively..

In what is but a clear divergence from the trend globally, our markets have turned nervous at a time when their global counterparts are exhibiting immense strength. For on the Asian front, the Shanghai and Nikkei have added more than 2% each and the others have added almost a percent towards close, while European markets such as FTSE, DAX and CAC have edged higher by upto half a percent each. And the Dow futures are trading higher by about 20 points in pre-market activity, suggesting a positive opening on Wall Street.

RIL tops the losers list on the BSE. The stock is quoting at Rs 1025, weaker by 2.6% at Rs 1025 despite good results on fears that its gas production could stagnate at 60 million standard cubic metres a day for the next 9-12 months. ICICI has fallen by 1.7% at Rs 1025 and DLF has shed 1.6% at Rs 314. ACC, Jaiprakash Associates and Hindustan Unilever are the other significant losers.

On the other hand, Cipla has gained 1.3% at Rs 330, Tata Power has added 1.2% at Rs 1337 and M&M has added 0.9% at Rs 646.

And the market breadth has turned negative; Out of 2944 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1258 advancing stocks as againt 1591 declines.