Sensex below 17K, ends 236 points lower

The Indian markets came under bear grip in the last one and half hour of trade and closed the session with heavy losses. The Sensex dropped 236 points and the Nifty slid 80 points

Major headlines:

Kingfisher Airlines not seeking bailout: Vijay Mallya

Rupee hits 32-month low

Cipla zooms on posting good Q2 numbers

Tata Power hits 52-week low after poor Q2 results



Indian indices

The Indian markets witnessed a heavy fall in the mid-afternoon trade as investors booked profits across the board. Weakness in the European stocks also weighed on the sentiments. The markets were directionless for most part of the session but major fall mainly in realty, capital goods, power, banking and consumer durables led the Sensex to slip below the 17000 mark.

Fears of euro zone debt crisis spreading further hit sentiments. Fall in rupee was another cause of concern today - the Indian rupee depreciated to 50.69 to the dollar against 50.30/dollar yesterday. The markets closed over three-week low.

Sensex movements: Weak global cues dragged the Sensex lower by 37 points at 17082 in the opening trade. Thereafter, the index remained volatile in a narrow range. In the late noon trades, the index began to fall sharply and touched an intraday low of 16838. The Sensex fell 236 points to end at 16883 and the Nifty settled 80 points lower at 5069.

Market sentiment:

The market breadth stood weak as declining shares outdid the rising ones over three times. Of the 2960 stocks traded on the BSE, 629 (21.25%) rose, 2230 (75.34%) fell and 101 (3.41%) remained unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening:

All the 13 sectoral indices closed lower. BSE Realty was the weak performer of the day, down by 5.22%, following that BSE CG declined by 2.77% and BSE Power slipped by 2.14%. Remaining ten dipped in the range of 0.54-2.02%.

In 'A' group stocks, top gainers - Cipla advanced by 6.51%, Emami up by 2.63% and Dish TV India surged by 1.95%. Weak movers — Lanco Infratech fell by 11.86%, United Spirits down by 11.09% and Shree Renuka Sugars declined by 10.81%.

Viewing volumes:

Sugar making company - Shree Renuka Sugars was traded the most with over 0.87 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. Following that, India's largest automobile company - Tata Motors (0.40 crore shares), an integrated infrastructure development company - Lanco Infratech (0.34 crore shares), India's second largest developer - Unitech (0.34 crore shares) and Wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy (0.30 crore shares).

Global Indices:

The European stock markets declined on Tuesday (November 15, 2011), adding to the previous session's drop as investors continued to fret about southern European countries' ability to tackle their debt problems and prevent borrowing costs from rising.

The Asian stock fell on Tuesday, and market participants said it was unlikely to push higher as rising bond yields in euro zone nations fuel concerns about Europe's ability to contain its debt crisis.

The US stock index futures pointed to a weaker open for equities on Wall Street on Tuesday.

Market Outlook: Data releases in the US on Tuesday — Retail Sales, Producer Price Index, Business Inventories and Empire State Manufacturing Survey