Sensex, Nifty fall over 1% at close; rate sensitives drag

Indian markets ended sharply lower as credit policy dampened market sentiment today. Rate sensitiveslike banks, realty and consumer durables led the decline.

India's central bank has decided to not to give in to growing political pressure to cut lending rate that caused slowdown in growth. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) slashed cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 25 bps while leaving lending and borrowing rates unchanged in the second quarter monetary policy review.

At the close, the benchmark 30-share index, BSE Sensex declined 204.97 or 1.10% at 18,430.85 with 22 components registering drop. Meanwhile, the broad based NSE Nifty fell by 67.70 or 1.19% at 5,597.90 with 41 components posting drop.Nidhi Sarswat, senior research analyst, Bonanza Portfolio said, "Nifty has today finally broken the range of 5,635-5,725, which it has been holding for more than 5 weeks. However, breaking below the support level of 5,635, has made the short term trend bearish and further selling is likely to be seen in the coming sessions."

"In the coming sessions, 5,580 level on the downside and 5,650 level on the upside shall be deciding levels. If it goes above 5,650, further buying momentum is likely for a target of 5,700-5,750. Second quarterly results for FY13 shall continue to be in focus in coming sessions. For the coming sessions, LICHFIN, Powergrid and Titan Ind are some of the prominent companies which shall be announcing their Q2 results and some stock specific action may be seen," Sarswat said.

Sensex Movers

Larsen & Toubro contributed fall of 32.22 points in the Sensex. It was followed by I C I C I Bank (32 points), State Bank Of India (30.15 points), I T C (27.96 points) and Tata Motors (20.33 points).

However, Infosys contributed rise of 13.09 points in the Sensex. It was followed by Hindustan Unilever (5.53 points), Maruti Suzuki India (5.23 points), Wipro (1.89 points) and Tata Consultancy Services (1.13 points).

Biggest gainers in the 30-share index were Maruti Suzuki India (2.27%), Dr Reddy"S Laboratories (1.58%), Infosys (0.99%), Hindustan Unilever (0.80%), Wipro (0.78%), and Bharat Heavy Electricals (0.37%).

On the other hand, State Bank Of India (4.43%), Tata Motors (3.52%), Larsen & Toubro (2.93%), Hindalco Industries (2.38%), Jindal Steel & Power (2.25%), and I C I C I Bank (2.21%) were the major losers in the Sensex.

Mid & Small-cap Space

The BSE Midcap index was at 6508.64 down by 66.13 points or by 1.01%. The major losers were Aban Offshore (1.76%), CORE Education and Technologies (1.19%), A I A Engineering (0.84%), A B G Shipyard (0.56%) and Alstom India (0.42%).

The BSE Smallcap index was at 6954.74 down by 88.88 points or by 1.26%. The major losers were A2Z Maintenance & Engineering Services (2.89%), Action Construction Equipment (2.36%), Aarti Industries (1.89%), Styrolution ABS (India) (1.74%) and Trident (1.33%).

Sectors in Limelight

The Bankex index was at 12,870.61, down by 310 points or by 2.35%. The major losers were Canara Bank(6.05%), Bank Of Baroda (4.64%), Bank Of India (2.43%), Federal Bank (1.6%) and H D F C Bank (1.03%).

The Realty index was at 1,746.63, down by 40.73 points or by 2.28%. The major losers were Housing Development and Infrastructure (4.91%), Indiabulls Real Estate (3.9%), D B Realty (3.72%), D L F (2.21%) and Godrej Properties (0.93%).

The Consumer Durables index was at 6,898.36, down by 159.19 points or by 2.26%. The major losers were Titan Industries (3.41%), Rajesh Exports (3.11%), T T K Prestige (2.19%), Whirlpool Of India (2.11%) and Bajaj Electricals (0.43%).

On the other hand, the IT index was at 5,697.99, up by 29.02 points or by 0.51%. The major gainers were Infosys (0.99%), Tech Mahindra (0.62%), Oracle Financial Services Software (0.23%), Mphasis (0.14%) and Tata Consultancy Services (0.13%).

Market Breadth

Market breadth was negative with 1,028 advances against 1,833 declines.

Value and Volume Toppers

State Bank Of India topped the value chart on the BSE with a turnover of Rs. 2,416.52 million. It was followed by United Spirits (Rs. 1,222.23 million), K P I T Cummins Infosystems (Rs. 693.74 million) and I C I C I Bank (Rs. 502.27 million).

The volume chart was led by K P I T Cummins Infosystems with trades of over 5.66 million shares. It was followed by Kingfisher Airlines (5.57 million), Suzlon Energy (5.15 million) and Lanco Infratech (4.34 million).