Sensex nose-dives below 18k…RIL skids

Red was the color of the day, as far as the Indian markets were concerned, with the key stock indices extending the losing streak to a second straight week. After opening in the green territory, the benchmark stock indices witnessed selling pressure throughout the day.

Reliance Industries was by far the biggest culprit for the sudden turnaround in sentiment after a fairly good opening. The index bellwether slipped on reports that its gas production from the KG-D6 block may fall sharply in FY13. Among the other major laggards were, Reliance Infra, M&M and HDFC.



India was one of the big losers in Asia today while other regional markets were up after G7 agreed on a concerted intervention in the currency market to check the rise of yen.

"India managed to underperform its Asian peers as bad news on RIL added to the list of concerns after the RBI’s eight rate hike in the last one year. For India inflation has always been a big factor and with headline WPI print refusing to soften amid high oil prices the market will find it difficult to climb materially in the near term. Good news from the overseas markets could turn out to be the saving grace," it would be tough to says Amar Ambani, Head of Research (India Private Clients) - IIFL.

The BSE Sensex lost 271 points to close at 17,878. It had earlier touched a day's high of 18,259 and a day's low of 17,849. It opened at 18,251. While, the NSE Nifty lost 73 points to close at 5,373.

Ambuja Cement, Tata Steel and ITC were among the notable gainers in the Sensex and the Nifty.

Reliance Infra, M&M, RIL, RPower, BPCL, HDFC, RCOM, BHEL, SAIL, Cipla, Dr. Reddy's, TCS, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HCL Tech, Infosys, Maruti Suzuki, HUL, ONGC and GAIL were among the notable losers in the Sensex and the Nifty.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed down 1.4% after losing as much as 4% while the Topix fell 0.8% after briefly turning positive.

In other Asian markets, the Hang Seng dropped by nearly 2% while the Shanghai Composite in China fell by over 1%. The Kospi in South Korea and the S&P/ASX 200 index in Australia also rebounded.

European indices opened with a positive bias and witnessed accelerated gains later on. The key stock indices in the UK, Germany and France were up 0.5%, 0.6% and 0.5%.