Sensex ends 371 points lower on profit booking

It was a weak session for the Indian markets, with the Sensex closing 371 points lower and the Nifty down 117 points.

Headlines for the day

BHEL tanks on fall in orderflow

New order boosts RPP Infra Projects

Indiabulls Financial Services Q3 consolidated net profit up 22%

OBC Q3 net profit down by 13%



Indian indices

The Indian markets closed the trade with heavy losses on the back of profit booking across the board. Capital goods, power, realty, metal and banking stocks weighed heavily on the markets. Major heavyweight draggers – ICICI Bank, L&T, RIL, BHEL, Bharti Airtel, M&M, Sterlite and SBI. Weak global cues also dampened sentiments.

Sensex movements: The Sensex opened the session at 17138, down by 96 points on weak global cues. The index remained under pressure all throughout the day led by profit booking. Negative European cues and losses across the board dragged index to an intraday low of 16828 in late trade. The Sensex fell 371 points to settle at 16863 and the Nifty stood at 5087, down by 117 points.

Market sentiment:

The market breadth stood in favour of declines. Of the 2915 stocks traded on the BSE, 997 (34.20%) rose, 1820 (62.44%) fell and 98 (3.36%) were unchanged.

Viewing volumes:

Wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy was traded the most, with over 0.89 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. Followed by an integrated infrastructure development company - Lanco Infratech (0.72 crore shares), industrial finance company - IFCI (0.69 crore shares), sugar making company - Shree Renuka Sugars (0.49 crore shares) and largest single location flat steel producer in India - Essar Oil (0.36 crore shares).

Sectoral & stock screening:

All the 13 sectoral indices closed in red. BSE CG was the underperformer, down by 5.55%, BSE Power fell by 3.54% and BSE Realty slipped by 3.10%. Remaining ten declined in the range of 0.17-2.85%.

Among 'A' group stocks, top three gainers - Hindustan Copper surged by 7.45%, Jubilant Foodworks up by 5.65% and MMTC rose by 4.46%. Top three losers - BHEL down by 10.41%, Jain Irrigation Systems declined by 9.18%, and REC fell by 7.77%.

Global Indices:

The European shares extended losses on Monday (January 30, 2012), as worries about debt swap talks between Greece and its private creditors continued to weigh on investor sentiment before an European Union summit about the region's debt crisis.

The Asian stock markets closed lower on Monday, as markets cautiously tuned into a likely debt swap deal for Greece that is crucial to avoiding a messy default and eyed yet another European summit meeting.

The US stock index futures pointed to a lower open on the Wall Street on Monday.

Market Outlook: In the US, Personal Income & Outlays will remain in focus on Monday.