Sensex ends 238 points down; metals, banks, realty dip 2-2.5%

The benchmark Nifty has fallen for the fourth consecutive day and shed more than 100 points in these four days. It slipped below 5900 - a psychologically important level - during the day but managed to claw back above that level at close.

Final retracement support for the Nifty is at 5,755, says Vijay Bhambwani of bsplindia.com. "We do a Fibonacci check of the rally which started from 5,690 and terminated at close to 6,070. We are at 50% retracement at 5,880, 61.8% retracement comes at 5,835 and then one final retracement support is seen at 5,755. Unless all these are overcome and 5,690 is overcome, I wouldn't say that the bulls are even remotely under threat. This is basically a profit taking bout which we are seeing and I would still hope that the 6,200 odd levels can still be seen in December.

Dipan Mehta, Member of BSE & NSE said caution should be the key word at this point in time. A lot of stocks have come down to attractive levels. But the technicals of the market do suggest that the stocks and the market as a whole can trade even lower, he says.

Financials took a beating for the third straight day today on likely margin squeeze post a hike in deposit rates by various banks. PNB hiked its deposit rates by 50-100 bps w.e.f. Wednesday. Earlier ICICI Bank and SBI also hiked their deposit rates.

The BSE Bankex dropped 2% on Wednesday and nearly 8% in four days. Axis Bank was the top loser on the Nifty with a 5.5% loss; SBI, HDFC, HDFC Bank and IDFC were down 2-3%. ICICI Bank was down 0.5% and PNB down 1.4% while Kotak Mahindra Bank rose 0.5%.

Nandan Chakraborty of Enam said, "In the banking sector, margins will be hit by the rise in deposit rates. Asset quality could be a concern in FY12, though the scam-related portions are quite small in the overall context."