Sensex snaps two day advance

After a two-day relief rally, the Indian market gave back some of those gains as bears resurfaced on Dalal Street. The benchmark stock indices slipped in the afternoon trade after being rangebound-to-positive in the morning trade.

Capital Goods space was under pressure today and IT stocks witnessed some profit booking while Oil & Gas stocks also declined. On the other hand, Metals and Realty stocks managed to buck the negative trend with smart gains. The Mid-Cap and Small-Cap indices retreated from their day's high owing to some profit taking.



"Auto major Bajaj Auto, Mid-Cap IT heavyweight HCL Tech and Hindustan Zinc announced better than expected quarterly results. However, the market seemed to be more worried about the governance deficit, high inflation and FII outflows. All eyes are on next week's RBI review and forthcoming results from the leading companies such as Wipro, Yes Bank, RIL, ITC, BHEL, PNB and Tech Mahindra," says Amar Ambani, Head of Research (India Private Clients) - IIFL.

The BSE Sensex lost 114 points to close at 18,978 and the NSE Nifty fell 33 points to end at 5,691.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, the BSE Capital Goods index was the top loser, the index slipped 1%, BSE IT index was down 1% and BSE Oil & Gas index was down 1%.

On the other hand, BSE Metal index gained 2% followed by BSE Realty index gained 1.8% and BSE Banking index was up 0.2%.

The European indices were trading mixed, the DAX in Germany was up 0.2%, and the CAC 40 index in France was flat and FTSE index was down 0.2%.

SAIL, HCL Tech, DLF, Sterlite, Sesa Goa, Hindalco, Reliance Infra, Kitak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Auto, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel and ICICI Bank were among the notable leaders in the Sensex and Nifty.

Ambuja Cement, GAIL, Suzlon, Infosys, L&T, Hero Honda, Ranbaxy, ACC, Tata Power and HDFC Bank were among the notable losers in the Sensex and Nifty.

Outside the frontline indices, the big gainers in the broader market were LIC Housing Fin, Canara Bank, Opto Circuit and Yes Bank. On the other hand, losers included DB realty, Sintex, LITL and CESC.