Equity markets declined on the back of weak cues from both domestic and global markets. Markets started off the day on a sluggish note as Asian markets remained shaky with weak data in the U.S. and Europe giving rise to fears of global slowdown. Further the European markets too slipped on the back of Spanish downgrade. On the domestic front, higher inflation numbers also kept markets weak. India's wholesale price index (WPI) rose 7.55% in May from a year earlier, driven by double-digit rise in food and fuel prices. Inflation was at 7.23% in April 2012. Market breadth was weak as on BSE, 1,701 shares fell and 1,011 shares rose.
The BSE Sensex touched an intraday high of 16,921 and a low of 16,659 before it shed 202 points or 1.2% to close at 16,677. Mid cap and small cap stocks ended lower however it was the small cap stocks which underperformed both the large cap and mid caps. The BSE Mid-cap and BSE Small-cap index fell 1.3% and 0.7% respectively. Similarly the S&P CNX Nifty dipped 1.3% or 67 points to close below 5,100 at 5,055 points.
Barring the BSE IT index, all the sectoral indices ended lower on the BSE sectoral space. The top losers were the BSE Realty, BSE Bankex, BSE Capital Goods and BSE Power indices which each shed 2.9%, 2.8%, 2.8% and 2.2% respectively.
Among the BSE 30 stocks, only 4 stocks gained, 1 remained unchanged while the rest declined. Tata Motors, L&T, NTPC, ICICI Bank and SBI were the top five losers which lost 4.6%, 3.9%, 3.8%, 3.5% and 3.1% respectively. On the contrary, Infosys, Cipla, ITC and Sterlite Ind which grew by 1.1%, 0.6%, 0.3% and 0.2% respectively.
As per the data released by SEBI, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in equity to the tune of Rs 272 crores. Similarly, they were net buyers in debt segment to the tune of Rs 253 crores.
