Eastern winds blow markets cold

Global signals

European shares were flat in early trades with weakness in banks and miners just offsetting the gains in defensive drug makers, as investors stayed cautious ahead of further corporate earnings from the USA.

All the major Asian indices closed mixed.

Indian indices

The market lost the grip that it has built initially and suffered heavy losses on late selling in capital goods (CG), power, public sector units (PSUs) and other major counters. The market opened dead flat (same as yesterday’s closing) at 17474 and slid but remained with a range. After slipping below 1400 level in noon trades, it plunged deep into red towards the close on unabated selling in CG, power and PSU stocks, falling almost 450 points below its opening to touch the day's low of 17025. The Sensex signed off the session 2.42% or 423 points down at 17051. Nifty tumbled 128 points to close at 5094.

Sensex sentiment

The market breadth was very weak. Of the 3,004 stocks traded on the BSE, 2,424 stocks declined, whereas 535 stocks advanced. 45 stocks ended unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

Bears trampled all the sectors with the BSE CG hit the most, by 5.15%. BSE Power was hit 3.47% and BSE PSU lost 2.98%. BSE Realty was down by 3820.93. the remaining sector indices slipped by around 1-2% each.

Bears hit all the 30 Sensex stocks into red led by Larsen & Toubro (down 6.85%), Tata Power (down 4.46%), Bharat Heavy Electricals (down 4.12%), Sterlite Industries (down 3.78%), HDFC (down 3.37%) and Reliance Infrastructure (down 3.20%).

Viewing volumes

PSU Rastriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) was the most actively traded scrip with over 1.43 crore shares changing hands on BSE followed by Realty major Unitech (0.73 crore shares), wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy (0.69 crore shares), Lanco Infrastructure (0.67 crore shares) and Ispat Industries (0.63 crore shares).

Today's major news

Dr Reddy's Laboratories reported Rs522-crore loss in Q3FY2010; the stock closes 6.55% lower

Government of India to relax foreign direct investment (FDI) norms

State Bank of India (SBI) sees credit growth at 20% for FY2011; the stock sheds 1.66%

Larsen & Toubro slips on disappointing Q3 numbers; the stock shots down 6.84%

Mercator Lines bags $225 million contract; the stock loses 1.86%