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Global signals

European shares dipped in early trades, with the banks extending their declines from Friday, when Goldman Sachs was charged with securities fraud, and airlines scrips slid as flying restrictions persisted on account of ash from Eyjafjallajökull.

All the major Asian indices closed negative. The SGX Nifty closed 62 points lower.

The US stock index futures fell on Monday as lingering concerns over fraud charges against Goldman Sachs weighed on investor sentiment.

Indian indices

Indian scrips extended their losing streak for the fifth straight trading session as civil fraud charges against Goldman Sachs filled by US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) triggered a sell-off across global markets. Bearish global cues (global indices on an average were trading 1.5% lower) saw Indian market start off flat, mere 6 points lower, but the Sensex dropped by over 200 points almost immediately, as Asian markets caught contagion.

Selling pressure across realty and metal stocks pulled Sensex 314 points lower to 17277— the day’s low. Mid session, the sentiments turned more negative on speculation of hike in policy rates in the monetary policy due tomorrow. The index however made a smart comeback recovering nearly 140 points led by gains in index heavyweights such as HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Hindalco Industries and ICICI Bank. Sensex ended the session at 17400, down 190 points and Nifty closed 59 points lower at 5203.

Market sentiment

Trailing scrips outnumbered advancing ones. Of the 3,021 shares traded on the BSE, 950 shares (31%) advanced whereas 1,953 shares (65%) trailed, while hundred and eighteen shares (4%) remained unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

All the 13 sector indices on BSE traded negative all through the day and closed in red. Sectors that were hit the worst was BSE Realty that was down 2.51% followed by BSE Metal that declined 2.11%. Rest of the sectors fell in the 0.34%-1.96% range.

The top 3 gainers today were Jain Irrigation that surged 7.01% followed by Allahabad Bank, which rose 4.42%, and Zee Entertainment that jumped 3.37%. The top 3 losers were Jet Air India that was down 6.47% followed by JSW steel, which slid 4.94% and GMR Infra, which fell 4.75%.

Viewing volumes

India’s second largest realty major Unitech was the most actively traded share with over 0.85 crore shares changing hands on the BSE followed by steel maker Ispat Industries (0.40 crore shares), wind turbine major Suzlon Energy (0.34 crore shares), Fortis Healthcare (0.33 crore shares) and GTL Infrastructure (0.32 crore shares).