Sensex closes below 17000; telecom, banks, metals drag

The Sensex snapped a three-day winning streak and closed below the 17,000 mark, a psychological mark. The Nifty also slipped below the 5,000 level during the day on the back of weak global cues.

All the sectoral indices were in the red barring FMCG; telecom, metal, realty, banking and auto stocks dragged the markets lower while airline shares bucked the trend in the midcap space.

The markets started the day on a weak note following weak US and Asian cues. The US markets fell over 2% in the last two sessions, the impact of which was seen today as the Indian markets were closed on Friday. US private employers cut 263,000 jobs during September against expectation of 175,000. Asian markets were also down but they managed to show some recovery in late trade.

In Asia, Kospi was down 2.3%, Straits Times down 0.8% and Nikkei down 0.6% while Taiwan Weighted rose 0.35% and Hang Seng up 0.26%. Shanghai will be shut till October 8. European markets and the US index futures were marginally in the green, at the time of writing this report.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 16,866.41, down 268.14 points or 1.56% and the 50-share NSE Nifty slipped 1.58% or 80.20 points, to settle at 5003.20. Among the broader indices, the BSE Midcap Index fell 1.7% and the Smallcap Index down 2.1%.

Telecom stocks were the major draggers in today's trade. Bharti Airtel plunged over 8% to Rs 400 per share. It traded with volumes of 6,329,429 shares, an increase of 202.60% compared to its 5-day average of 2,091,676 shares. Unwinding of long positions hammered the stock. Bharti-MTN deal was called off last week post disapproval by the South African government. Among the others, Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communication fell 5.6% each. Idea Cellular, MTNL and Tata Communication declined 3.4-4.4%.