Indices close below key levels; Sensex down 333 pts

The key indices ended the session with deep cuts, with the Sensex closing below 18000 and the Nifty below 5400

Major headlines

BHEL net profit up 47% in Q4

Tata Chemicals FY11 consolidated net profit up 8%

Mahindra Satyam drops on Q4 net loss



Indian indices

The Indian markets were under heavy selling pressure owing to weakness in global stocks after Fitch downgraded Greece's credit rating to B+ while Standard & Poor's cut its outlook on Italy to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’. The sell-off was seen across the board, with banking, power, realty, metal, capital goods (CG), pharma shares reeling under huge cuts. Index heavyweights like Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Infosys Technologies, Larsen & Toubro, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation were the major draggers, which led the Sensex to close below the 18000 mark. The Nifty also closed below the 5400 levels. The key indices fell to a two-month low in today’s trade.

Barring ITC up 2.29%, all the Sensex stocks edged lower. Top five Sensex losers — BHEL down 6.69%, ICICI Bank down 3.61%, Reliance Infrastructure down 3.57%, Tata Motors down 3.36% and Tata Steel down 3.30%.

Global weakness led the Sensex to fall 57 points at 18269 (day’s high) in the opening trade. The Sensex remained under pressure, witnessing heavy losses and hit the day’s low of 17971 in the afternoon trade on continuous selling. The Sensex shut 333 points lower at 17993 and the Nifty declined 100 points to close at 5387.

Market sentiment

The market breadth was extremely weak. Of the 2,898 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,973 (68.08%) declined while 801 (27.64%) advanced. However, 124 (4.28%) stocks traded unchanged.

Viewing volumes

India's second largest real estate developer - Unitech was traded the most, with over 0.38 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. It was followed by wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy (0.35 crore shares), Indian shipbuilding company - Pipavav Shipyard (0.24 crore shares), a Jaypee Group firm - Jaiprakash Associates (0.13 crore shares) and a leading infrastructure firm - GVK Power & Infrastructure (0.10 crore shares).

Sectoral & stock screening

Eleven sectors witnessed heavy selling pressure, while rest two saw buying interest. BSE CG was the weak performer losing by 2.95%, followed by BSE Power down by 2.91% and BSE Bankex fell by 2.85%. The only two gainers - BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) gained by 0.59% and BSE Consumer Durables (CD) rose by 0.49%.

In 'A' group stocks, top three gainers were - Shriram Transport Finance Company rose by 3.10%, Shree Cement surged by 2.91% and Divi's Laboratories up by 2.31%. Top three losers were - Aurobindo Pharma slipped by 9.23%, D B Realty down by 7.76% and BHEL declined by 6.69%.

Global signals

The European markets fell on Monday on renewed worries about the euro zone's peripheral debt crisis, as Greece's credit ratings were cut further into 'junk' territory and Italy's rating outlook was cut to negative.

The Asian markets ended lower on Monday. Japan’s Nikkei fell to a five-week low, while China's Shanghai Composite dropped to a 3-1/2-month low.

The US stock index futures signal to a lower opening on the Wall Street on Monday.