Sensex ends 228 points lower on profit booking

Finally the big profit booking has stepped in after a month; the Sensex slipped more than 225 points on Thursday, dragged down by financial, metal, realty, capital goods, technology, FMCG, select auto and power companies' shares.

The Nifty has been facing lot of selling pressure whenever it tests 6200 level but it has still been maintained a range of 6100-6200. But Mithil Pradhan senior vice-president of the derivatives and technicals division at Centrum Broking, has a fairly bullish call on Nifty at 6,400-6,500 levels. He sees the run up to these levels in the next few days.

"The current consolidation that we are looking at since the past two-three days that may last for another one-two days and I think next week again Nifty should pick up. 6500 calls have seen some accumulation in the last one-two days. The open interest is huge in this 6,500 call and I think more or less market participants are betting that the run up would continue to about 6,500," he explained.

All sectoral indices ended in red barring healthcare. Even the broader indices turned negative in last couple of hours; the BSE Midcap Index was down 0.7% and Smallcap down 0.9%. 

However, on the positive side - Bharti Airtel, Tata Power, Dr Reddys Labs, Hero Honda, Cipla, Hindalco and Reliance Communications were the only shares on buyers' radar.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 20,315.32, down 227.76 points or 1.11% and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 66.15 points or 1.07% to settle at 6,120.30. However, the futures maintained its premum; October futures ended at 24 points premium, as per provisional data.

Global cues:

Asian markets were mixed in early trade; Hang Seng, Nikkei and Taiwan were marginally in green while Straits Times and Kospi fell 0.2-0.4%. SGX Nifty was at 6209, down 2 points.