Market slips amid sharp volatility

Positive international indices failed to lift the sentiment in the domestic market, as the Sensex drifted into negative territory after gaining 201 points in early trades. The sentiment turned extremely bearish in the afternoon as sustained selling in heavyweight, FMCG, realty and fast-moving Bankex stocks dragged the index below the 15,550 mark to an intra-day low of 15,527. The Sensex witnessed a swing of 444 points during the day and ended the session with losses of 198 points at 15,572. Nifty shed 49 points to close at 4,627.

The market breadth was negative. Of the 2,717 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,521 stocks declined, 1,131 stocks advanced and 65 stocks ended unchanged. All the sectoral indices ended in the red except the BSE Auto index. The BSE FMCG index dropped 2.65% at 2,361.88 followed by the BSE Reality (down 1.83% at 6,210.30), the BSE Metal index (down 1.27% at 15,515.39), the BSE HC index (down 1.15% at 4,296.01) and the BSE Bankex index (down 1.12% at 7,266.28).

Out of the 30 Sensex stocks, only four stocks managed to close in positive. Among the losers, Wipro slumped 4.43% at Rs500, ITC tumbled 4.14% at Rs211.40, Ranbaxy Laboratories plunged 3.47% at Rs503.25, Hindalco declined 3.46% at Rs174.65, DLF dipped 3.44% at Rs517, Reliance Energy shed 2.67% at Rs1,084, Tata Consultancy Services lost 2.36% at Rs798, Bharti Airtel was down 2.34% at Rs798, JP Associates fell 2.21% at Rs199.50 and Tata Steel was down 2.10% at Rs751.95. Mahindra & Mahindra however bucked the downtrend and advanced 3.46% at Rs582.20. Tata Motors gained 1.40% at Rs540.05, Grasim Industries gained 0.73% at Rs2,262.80 and Infosys advanced 0.66% at Rs1,992.85.

FMCG stocks were under sustained selling pressure today. United Spirits plummeted 2.34% at Rs1,518.80, Tata Tea tumbled 1.69% at Rs802.50, REI Agro dropped 1.32% at Rs1,520 and Marico shed 1.19% at Rs62.25. United Breweries, Hindustan Unilever and Nestle shed around 1% each.

Over 1.62 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by SpiceJet (1.16 crore shares), Chambal Fertilisers (1 crore shares), Gokul Refoil (96 lakh shares) and Ispat industries (89 lakh shares).

Valuewise, Reliance Industries registered a turnover of Rs385 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Capital (Rs214 crore), Cairn India (Rs208 crore), Gokul Refoils (Rs197 crore) and Anu Lab (Rs174 crore)