Sensex slips for 3rd session…Nifty ends below 5500

The Indian equity markets ended in the negative terrain for a third straight trading session on Thursday amid short rolls seen in the F&O segment. Market sentiment was hit despite food inflation moderating in the middle of July and the Cabinet approving the draft Lokpal Bill.

Investors remained jittery over the near-term prospects amid a slew of negative factors like RBI's hawkish stance on inflation, economic slowdown, drop in FII flows, erratic monsoon, mixed quarterly results and Government inertia in policy making.



World markets continue to be nervous as the US struggles to carve out a deal on raising the country's debt limit and avoid a possible default on its "AAA" rating before the August 2 deadline.

Metals, Realty, Banking, Oil & Gas and IT stocks were among the major laggards. Select defensives like Pharma, FMCG and Consumer Durables fared relatively better.

Within the Sensex and Nifty, the top gainers are ITC, BHEL, Hero Honda, ACC,Ranbaxy, Grasim and Ambuja Cement.

Reliance Infrastructure, JP Associates, IDFC, Jindal Steel, Hindalco andSterlite are among the laggards within the Sensex and Nifty.

Within the BSE 500, Nava Bharat Ventures, Sun TV Network, Hexaware Tech,Himadri Chemicals are among the gainers, whereas Kiri Industries, SKS Microfinance,Bajaj Electricals and Reliance Media are the notable losers.

The Mid-Cap and Small-Cap indices were under pressure.

Asian markets were all down today amid lingering concern that the US could fail to reach a political agreement on how to increase the nation's debt limit before the August 2 deadline.

Markets in Japan and Australia were down 1-2%. However, stocks in China and Hong Kong managed to recover by the close. The Hang Seng in fact closed in the positive zone.

European markets were under pressure as a lack of progress in talks over the US debt ceiling coupled with a few disappointing earnings weighed on the sentiment there.

"The after-shocks of the RBI’s aggressive monetary tightening earlier this week continues to rattle the markets. Concerns seem to be mounting on the impact of the series of rate hikes on the Indian economy and corporate profits going forward. FII inflows too have moderated lately while results are not having any material effect on the overall sentiment. The market will remain sideways and rangebound in the near-term with a slightly negative bias," says Amar Ambani, Head of Research, IIFL - India Private Clients.

Finally, the BSE Sensex ended at 18,209 slipping 223 points. It had earlier touched a day's high of 18,327 and a day's low of 18,188. It opened at 18,300. The NSE Nifty closed at 5,487 losing 59 points.