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Sensex down 292 points

MUMBAI - Light to heavy selling emerged on slower industrial growth rate shown by the government on Tuesday. Investors preferred staying on the sidelines.

Pronounced selling was noted in metal, banking and IT shares. The key indices witnessed a bout of volatility in the last hour of trade.

The 30-share BSE Sensitive Index opened with a positive gap of 73 points at 15,577 and could barely move a tad higher to touch its intra-day high of 15,580. Profit-taking prevailed major part of trading hours sending Sensex to a low of 15,125 - down 455 points from the day's high.

Significant weakness in banking, metal and technology stocks pulled down the benchmark. The Sensex recouped some losses and ended with a loss of 292 points at 15,212. The NSE Nifty shed 68 points to settle at 4,552. Nifty August futures were at 4570.50, a premium of 18.25 points as compared to spot closing.

The BSE clocked a turnover of Rs58.75 billion from Rs54.97 billion on Monday. NSE's futures & options turnover was Rs524.62 billion from Rs396.99 billion on Monday.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,729 stocks traded, 1,100 shares advanced, 1,556 declined and 73 remained unchanged. In the 30-member list of Sensex shares, 25 shares declined while 5 advanced.

Tata Steel slumped 5.7 per cent to Rs608. Maruti tumbled over five per cent to Rs678. Jaiprakash Associates and Sterlite shed 4.5 per cent each at Rs189 and Rs597, respectively. ICICI Bank, HDFC and Infosys dropped around 4 per cent each to Rs738, Rs2,467 and Rs1,604, respectively.

Tata Power and HDFC Bank slipped around 3.5 per cent each to Rs1,037 and Rs1,264, respectively. Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors declined around 2.5 per cent each to Rs823 and Rs436, respectively. SBI, Wipro, Ranbaxy, Satyam and TCS were down around 2 per cent each.

On the brighter side, ITC advanced over 1 per cent to Rs195. Grasim, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Inds and Hindustan Unilever were the other gainers.

Reliance Inds topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs2.97 billion followed by Reliance Capital (Rs2.52 billion), Infosys (Rs1.86 billion), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs1.76 billion) and Larsen & Toubro (Rs1.67 billion). Landmark Projects led the volume chart with trades of around 25.4 million shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (17.1 million), Chambal Fertilisers (16.1 million), Nagarjuna Fertilisers (12 million) and Kashyap Technologies (9.32 million shares).

The BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.79 per cent to 5,935.53 and the BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.7 per cent to 7,220.42. The BSE Bankex and the Metal index dropped around 3.5 per cent each to 7,437 and 12,661, respectively. The IT index slipped nearly 3 per cent to 3,772.

Metal shares declined sharply. Tata Steel (down 5.71 per cent at Rs607.95), Jindal Steel & Power (down 5.11 per cent at Rs1993.60), Sterlite Industries (down 4.46 per cent at Rs597.05), and Steel Authority of India (down 2.18 per cent at Rs143.70) were top losers.

Banking shares tumbled. ICICI Bank crashed 4.20 per cent at Rs738.20. Axis Bank (down 5.03 per cent at Rs721.55), HDFC Bank (down 3.42 per cent at Rs1263.90), and SBI (down 2.20 per cent at Rs1557.55) noted losses.

IT shares declined. Infosys fell 3.98 per cent at Rs1603.70. Wipro (down 2.06 per cent at Rs433.30), TCS (down 1.85 per cent at Rs818.20), and Satyam (down 1.90 per cent at Rs402.75) saw losses.

FMCG shares bucked weak market trend. GlaxoSmithkline Consumer Healthcare (up 1.70 per cent at Rs650), United Spirits (up 1.60 per cent at Rs1369.20), REI Agro (up 1.42 per cent at Rs1107), ITC (up 1.19 per cent at Rs195.50), and Hindustan Unilever (up 0.60 per cent at Rs242.95), moved up. The BSE FMCG index outperformed the Sensex, rising 0.69 per cent to 2,222.15.