Sensex sinks anew...Nifty closes below 5400

After staging a strong comeback in the previous trading session, the Indian markets were unable to carry on the momentum amid lack of follow-up buying. Traders and investors preferred to exit their positions ahead of the advanced annual GDP numbers to be announced on Monday.



Relentless selling saw the NSE Nifty close below the 5400 levels while the BSE Sensex just managed to keep its head above 18,000.

Today’s steep fall was led by Realty, FMCG, Capital Goods, Banking, IT and Auto stocks. The remaining sectoral indices on the BSE were down 1-2%. Even the Mid-Caps and the Small-Cap stocks were badly battered both the indices slipped over 1.5% each.

"Yesterday, the market completely ignored the spike in food inflation to 17% and rallied smartly. Today also it seemed that the rellef rally could be stretched further but that was not to be. After hitting day's high in mid-morning trade, the key indices suddenly turned weak and never recovered. Next week, the markets will be closely following the advance FY11 GDP estimates and the latest IIP numbers," says Amar Ambani, Head of Research (India Private Clients) - IIFL.

The BSE Sensex lost 441 points to close at 18,008 and the NSE Nifty lost 131 points to end at 5,395.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, the BSE Realty index was the top loser, the index lost 3.3%, BSE FMCG was down 3% and BSE Teck index was down 2.2%. The BSE Mid-Cap index lost 1.3% and BSE Small-Cap index 1.7%.

Outside the frontline indices, the big losers in the broader market were DB Realty, Sun TV, Nagarjuna Const, Cummins India and Dish TV. On the other hand, gainers included Jain Irrigation, Welcorp and Divi’s Lab.