Sensex ends below 15k; HDFC plunges 4.43%

The Sensex for the second straight session ended on a weak note. Capital goods, auto, power,IT, metal and banking stocks led the fall. It opened positive with a gain of 62.43 points, at 15,124.92 on Wednesday on good global cues. Wipro`s Q1 earnings beats expectations and came as a good news for market. For the first half of the session, the index traded in the positive, touching a high of 15,369.42. Later, it lost all its firmness and slipped into the negative as profit booking emerged for the second half of the day. It continued its downward trend on aggressive selling pressure seen in frontliners and touched a low of 14,786.58. Even opening of negative European markets also added fuel to the sentiment. Finally, it wrapped the day below 15, 000 mark.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap index declined 0.97% and 0.35% respectively.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Capital goods dipped 1.87%, BSE IT, Power, Auto, Metal and Bankex down over 1% each.

European stocks slipped after a seven-day rally pushed valuations on the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index to the highest in five years, offsetting better-than- estimated earnings from Apple and TomTom. UK`s benchmark index FTSE 100 fell 4.94 points, or 0.11%, to trade at 4,476.23.French benchmark index CAC 40 lost 23.67 points, or 0.72%, to trade at 3,279.22 and Germany`s benchmark index DAX declined 15.54 points, or 0.33% to trade at 5,077.86. (4.14 p.m., IST)

Asian stocks gained as Shin-Etsu Chemical sought to raise prices and BHP Billiton pumped a record amount of crude oil. Japanese benchmark index Nikkei rose 71.14 points, or 0.74%, to end at 9,723.16.Hong Kong`s Hang Seng index fell 253.56 points, or 1.30%, to finish at 19,248.17 and China`s Shanghai Composite climbed 83.41 points, or 2.60% to settle at 3,296.62.

The Sensex ended the day with a loss of 219.37 points, or 1.46% at 14,843.12 after touching a high of 15,369.42 and a low of 14,786.58. The broad-based NSE Nifty fell 70.20 points, or 1.57% at 4,398.90 after hitting a high of 4,557.95 and a low of 4,380.45

Major gainers in the 30-share index were Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (4.60%), Sterlite Industries (India) (0.91%), DLF (0.79%), and NTPC (0.44%).

On the other hand, Housing Development Finance Corporation (4.43%), Hindalco Industries (3.44%), Reliance Energy (3.36%), Grasim Industries (3.32%), Tata Steel (3.27%), and Jaiprakash Associates (2.95%) were the major losers in the Sensex.

Overall market breadth was mixed. Out of the total 2,704 stocks traded at BSE, 1,231 advanced, 1,374 stocks declined while 99 remained unchanged.