Weakness persists

The markets have not had any respite in the past one hour. The Sensex is now quoting at 15,829, down 395 points and the Nifty is at 4,723, down 122 points. The mid-cap and small-cap indices have lost almost 3% each.

The bourses had opened deeply in the red on the back of unexpected increase in the US jobless claims and escalating sovereign debt problems in Europe.

All the sectoral indices are in red. The realty index has slipped 4% to 3,259, while banking and metals have shed more than 3% each.

Tata Steel has plunged 4% to Rs 554, while Jaiprakash Associates and ICICI Bank have declined 3.7% each to Rs 126 and Rs 798 respectively. Tata Motors, DLF, ONGC and Sterlite have corrected between 3% and 4% each. And NTPC is trading lower by Rs 1 or 0.9% at Rs 206 on the last day of its FPO issue.

Hindustan Unilever is the only gainer among the Sensex stocks, having risen by Rs 2 or 1.21% at Rs 234.

The market breadth is skewed in favour of the declines. Out of 2533 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 295 advancing stocks as against 2206 declines.