Nifty ends below 10,000, drops 79 pts

The NSE benchmark Nifty extended its losses for the second day to drop below the psychological 10,000-level on emergence of selling mainly in realty and banking space after market regulator Sebi imposed trading restrictions on 331 listed shell companies with immediate effect.
The volatile trading momentum witnessed intense selling pressure as investor concerns emerged after Sebi last night directed exchange to initiate action against the suspected shell companies. These scrips will not be available for trading this month.
These entities would be subject to independent audit and if required, forensic audits could also be initiated to check their credentials.
Overseas, the Asian market took a breather as disappointing Chinese trade data clouded the otherwise upbeat outlook on global growth.

European stocks were trading lower in their afternoon trade as miners came under pressure.
The 50-share Nifty opened higher 10,068.35 and moved in a range of 10,083.80 and 9,947.00 before finishing at 9,978.55 a fall of 78.85 points, or 0.78 per cent, from its last close.

It saw an intra-day movement of about 136.80 points.
Barring metal, which made good gains at 1.47 per cent, key indices witnessed across-the-board selling led by realty (4.40 per cent), followed by PSU bank (2.39 per cent), energy (1.70 per cent), bank (1.23 per cent), infra (1.20 per cent) FMCG (1.18 per cent), private bank (1.17 per cent), pharma (1.12 per cent), media (0.94 per cent) and commodities (0.85 per cent).

Major index losers were Dr Reddy's 5.04 per cent, BPCL 4.29 per cent, IOC 4.16 per cent, Infratel 3.58 per cent and Coal India 2.56 per cent.
Top gainers included VEDL 3.48 per cent, Hndalco 3.18 per cent, Tata Steel 2.73 per cent, Cipla 2.14 per cent and GAIL 1.35 per cent.
Mid-cap and small-cap turned sluggish in today's trade, with the Nifty mid-cap and small-cap dropping 1.21 per cent and 1.71 per cent, respectively.
A total of 1,355 scrips declined, 344 advanced while 35 remained unchanged.
Total securities that hit their price bands were 137.
Turnover in the cash segment jumped to Rs 28,333.38 crore, from Rs 24,375.13 crore yesterday.

A total of 16,471.06 lakh shares changed hands in 9,276,119 trades. The market capitalisation of listed firms on the NSE stood at Rs 1,30,60,505 crore.