Political uncertainty leaves market shaky, Nifty down 46 pts

The market which had gone up recently in the wake of a series of measures taken by the UPA government saw selling pressure with the coalition partner Trinamool Congress deciding to withdraw its support to the government over diesel price hike, putting a cap on subsidised LPG cylinders and allowing FDI in retail.

Although, Trinamool had announced withdrawal of support on Tuesday, the market reacted to the development today as it was closed on Wednesday on account of Ganesh Chaturthi.

Trading got off to a sluggish start and though a brief recovery was noticed in late morning trade, there was heavy selling towards the end of the session.

On the global front, Asian stocks extended their fall on fresh concerns over gloomy Chinese growth data, while European peers were trading weak on a flurry of disappointing manufacturing and service sector activity reports from debt riden euro zone.

The 50-share Nifty plummeted to an intra-day low of 5,534.90 before concluding at 5,554.25, showing a fall of 45.80 points, or 0.82 per cent, over the last close.

However, technology and FMCG stocks bucked the general trend and ended firm.

BHEL, GAIL, Reliance Infra, Tata Steel, Axis Bank, Sesa Goa, Reliance, Sail, Sterlite Industries and Coal India were the top percentage-wise losers from the Nifty bunch.

BPCL, Bajaj Auto, TCS, ONGC, Ranbaxy, ITC, DLF, Wipro, Infosys and Kotak Bank ended on a high note.

The turnover in cash segment fell to Rs 12,406.66 crore from Rs 13,880.16 crore on Tuesday. Overall, 7,680.69 lakh shares changed hands in 65,73,937 trades. Total market capitalisation stood at Rs 62,42,315 crore.