Sensex sinks on late selling

The Sensex slipped 150 points to end at 18,070, the index hit an intra-day high of 18,264 and an intra-day low of 18,042. while Nifty lost 40 points to end at 5,421.



Markets in Asia ended in red; the Nikkei in Japan lost 2.7%, Australia's S&P/ASX ended lower by 2% and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong also ended lower 0.8%. However, the Shanghai SE Composite gained 0.5%.

European indices also were trading in the red, the DAX in Germany was down 1.5%, the CAC 40 index in France was down 1.7% and the FTSE in the UK was down 1.5%.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, the BSE Realty index was top loser; the index lost 1%, followed by BSE Banking index which lost 1.2% and BSE Pharma index slipped 1%. Even the Mid-Cap index and the Small-cap index slipped 0.5% each.

Outside the frontline indices, the big losers in the broader market were MMTC, RCF, Bhushan Steel and Nagarjuna Construction. On the other hand, gainers included Petronet LNG, Financial Tech, M&M Finance and Shriram Trans.