Sensex slips 320 points; Reliance, ONGC lose 3.5 per cent each

Frontline Indian indexes came under heavy pressure today as some the results, including that of Reliance Industries, failed to excite the markets. Weak trend across most Asian markets affected sentiment further and the Sensex slipped below 14000.

Sensex closed with losses of 320 points at 13909 and the Nifty lost 94 points to end at 4084. Nifty May futures closed at a discount of 17 points to the spot index.

Reliance Industries slipped 3.61 per cent following the company's results announcement after market hours yesterday. The other index heavyweight ONGC lost 3.34 per cent

Bharti Airtel declined 4.27 per cent though the results announced today were in line with expectations

Metal stocks slipped further, led by Tata Steel which lost 4.15 per cent. Sterlite Industries gave up 3.78 per cent

SBI saw a sharp fall in the afternoon on reports which quoted the bank chairman said bad loans have started rising

Cipla crashed 14.33 per cent following weaker than expected numbers while Glaxo lost 3.4 per cent

Suzlon was the other major loser, declining 3.25 per cent

Siemens was the best performer among Nifty stocks, closing 1.58 per cent higher. ABB added 1.11 per cent

Satyam remained firm throughout the session and ended 1.4 per cent higher. HCL Tech added 0.4 per cent while Wipro closed 0.37 per cent higher

Ranbaxy was the only other gainer among Nifty stocks, closing 0.08 per cent higher

Global markets / crude oil
US markets paused yesterday after the sustained rally in recent weeks. Good quarterly numbers led to strong gains for select stocks, which helped absorb the losses from profit booking.

The Dow gained more than 0.1 per cent to close at a new lifetime high while the S&P 500 index lost nearly 0.1 per cent. Strong gains in select stocks helped the NASDAQ to end with gains of over 0.25 per cent

Major Asian markets corrected today after yesterday's rally. South Korea and Hong Kong lost nearly 0.7 per cent each while Shanghai gave up 0.6 per cent. Singapore lost nearly 0.25 per cent and Japan ended nearly 0.2 per cent lower.

Malaysia sustained the up trend and closed 0.65 per cent higher while Thailand added nearly 0.65 per cent. Indonesia closed with gains of 0.2 per cent.

European markets opened lower and remain weak, though they have come off their lows. Major European indexes are trading with losses of between 0.05 per cent and 0.45 per cent each in afternoon trading.

Crude oil prices corrected yesterday after the previous day's rally. Near month NYMEX futures ended more than a per cent lower at $65.06 per barrel yesterday, but has recovered modestly in European trading today.

Large-cap news flow

Mid-Cap Action

Mid-caps and small caps remained weak today as well, but losses were lower than large cap stocks. The CNX Mid-cap index lost 46 points, or 0.89 per cent, to end at 5194. The BSE mid-cap index lost 0.94 per cent and the BSE small cap index closed 1.08 per cent lower.

Mico rallied 10.78 per cent after the announcement of an open offer at a price higher than the prevailing price

Visa Steel and Asian Electronics closed at 10 per cent upper circuits

REI Agro bounced back from a 20 per cent drop in early trades to close 9.47 per cent higher

Cholamandalam DBS, Hi-Tech Gear, Blue Dart, Himadri Chemicals and Clutch Auto were the other major gainers among mid-caps

GHCL and Genus Overseas closed at 10 per cent down circuits for the second session while Pyramid Saimira also ended at 10 per cent down circuit

Orbit Corporation, Lakshmi Energy and Foods, Sirpur Paper, Aztec Software, Emkay Share and Simplex Infrastructure were the other major losers among mid-cap and small-cap stocks

Mid-cap news flow

Thomas White Global Research, part of the Thomas White International Group, publishes capital market research for global institutions and investment banks.

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