Sensex spooked by late sell-off

The Indian markets ended in the red and has entered into a consolidating phase. The NSE Nifty is struggling to find specific direction for the past three trading sessions and is trading in a narrow trading band. After starting off in the positive terrain, markets were stuck until the European markets opened with a negative bias.



From there on the NSE Nifty witnessed heavy selling with the Realty and the Metals stocks among the major laggards. Even the Mid-Caps and the Small-Cap stocks witnessed selling pressure.

"As soon as Nifty violated the support of 6150 selling pressure intensified which saw the index breaching its past three days low indicating, short term weakness," says Amar Ambani, Head of Research (India Private Clients) - IIFL.

The BSE Sensex slipped by 228 points to close at 20,315. The NSE Nifty fell 66 points to close at 6,120.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, the BSE Realty index was the top loser, losing by 2.8%, followed by the BSE Metal index (down 1.7%) and BSE IT index (down 1.3%). On the other hand, the BSE Pharma index was the only gainer, the index gained 0.3%.

The broader indices ended lower, the BSE Mid-Cap index ended lower by 0.6% and BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.9%.

The European indices recovered from days low, the DAX in Germany was up 0.2%, the CAC 40 index in France also was up 0.0.3% and FTSE index in UK up 0.1%.

Outside the frontline indices, the big losers in the broader market were SCI, Renuka Sugars, Videocon Ind and GE Shipping. On the other hand, losers included Biocon, Adani Ent, IRB Infra and Thermax.