Sensex extends weekly loss...Nifty ends below 6100

After yet another positive start, the Indian market failed to build on the early gains and instead lost further ground later in the day to finish sharply lower. The BSE Sensex lost 200 points while the NSE Nifty closed below important support level of 6100. The decline in the Indian market was broad based with the broader indices also succumbing to the selling pressure.



Barring IT and FMCG, the rest of the BSE sectoral indices ended in the red, with Banking, Realty and Auto indices losing 2% each. Other laggards included Capital Goods and PSU counters.

Market breadth was decisively in favour of the bears today.

"After two days of modest losses the selling intensified a bit, as investors reacted to the global weakness in the wake of the overnight softening in the commodity space. For the second day in a row, banks were singled out for some rough treatment owing to concerns about margin pressure and another possible rate hike later this month. Defensives like IT and FMCG bucked the negative trend amid a flight to safety. The near-term outlook remains hazy and one cannot rule out more declines, though the same is unlikely to be a steep one," says Amar Ambani, Vice-President- Research, India Private Clients, IIFL.

The BSE Sensex closed at 20,301 down 197 points and the NSE Nifty ended at 6,078 down 67 points or 1.1%, over the previous close.

The BSE Small-Cap index and BSE Mid-Cap index ended down 1% each.

Hero Honda, IDFC, DLF, HDFC, RCOM, BPCL, ICICI Bank, Reliance Infra, Suzlon, Ambuja Cement, L&T, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel and M&M were among the laggards on the Sensex and the Nifty.

HUL, Tata Power, Hindalco, ITC, TCS, Wipro and Infosys were among the leaders in the Sensex and the Nifty.

Outside the two main indices, the key losers are S Rashtriya Chem, Anant Raj Inds, Shree Ashtavinayak, Gujarat State Fert, Karuturi Glob, Hindustan Copp, Apollo Tyres, Kirloskar Bros, Gujarat NRE Coke, Lanco Infra and Everonn Education.

Jindal Saw, Mundra Port, MMTC, Deepak Fert , Rain Commodities, Panacea Bio, Piramal Health, KGN Inds and Jain Irrigation are among the notable gainers in the broader market.

In global action, most markets in Asia closed weaker, barring the Hang Seng in Hong Kong. European stock benchmarks also fell in the wake of weakness in the commodity markets. US stock futures were also point to a lower start on Wall Street.