Yet again, equity markets fell lower following weakness in global markets. Investors turned cautious to Europe's electoral outcome amid concerns about austerity measures and commitments in the euro-zone. Domestic indices started off flat however soon turned volatile and started its downward journey with weakness in both Asian and European markets. Also back home reports by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stating that it has relatively little room to cut interest rates now hurt sentiments. Market breadth continued to be negative. On BSE,
The BSE Sensex shed 367 points or 2.2% to close at 16,546 very near to its intraday low of 16,503. The intraday high was 16,918. Similarly the S&P CNX Nifty too shed 2.2% or 114 points lower to end below 5000 mark to close at 4,999. Mid cap and small cap stocks too tanked but relatively lesser than their large cap peers. The BSE Mid-cap and BSE Small-cap indices declined by 1.3% and 0.9% respectively.
All the indices on the BSE sectoral space ended in red. The BSE Capital Goods index was the highest loser which lost 3.4% with index heavyweights BHEL and L&T falling 4.9% and 3.7% respectively. IT stocks fell after information technology services company Cognizant Technology Solutions lowered its revenue guidance for 2012. The BSE IT index shed 3.1%. Interest rate sensitive stocks too ended weak following news of possible pause in rate cuts by central bank. BSE Bankex, BSE Auto and BSE Realty indices fell 2.8%, 2.4% and 1.3% respectively. On the other hand, BSE PSU and BSE Oil & Gas indices were the marginal losers which fell 0.6% and 0.8% respectively.
Among the BSE – 30 stocks, only 5 stocks were in positive while the rest in deep red. TCS, BHEL, ITC, Tata Motors and L&T were the top five losers which fell by 5.8%, 4.9%, 4%, 3.9% and 3.7% respectively. On the contrary, the only five gainers were Coal India, Gail, Hindalco, HUL and DLF which grew by 2%, 1.6%, 1.2%, 0.3% and 0.2% respectively.
As per the data released by SEBI, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in equity to the tune of Rs 593 crores. While they were net buyers in debt segments to the tune of Rs 87 crores.