Mumbai: Despite staying in positive territory throughout the morning, Indian equities markets on Wednesday again came under selling pressure to end the day in the red with a key index shedding more than 160 points to stay below the psychologically important 9,000 mark.
The 30-share benchmark sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) finished at 8,773.78, down 163.42 points or 1.83 per cent from its previous close on Tuesday at 8,937.20 points.
The Sensex opened some 30 points higher at 8,970.67 points and continued to surge strongly on strong global cues throughout the morning to hit an intra-day high of 9,236.27 points before coming under renewed selling pressure late afternoon to finally end in the red.
The broader-based 50 share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also showed a similar trend and closed at 2635.00, down 48.15 points or 1.79 percent from its previous close at 2683.15 points.
The BSE midcap index closed at 2,998.39, down 61.93 points or 2.02 per cent from its previous close at 3,060.32 points.
The BSE smallcap index finished at 3,493.12, down 65.54 points or 1.84 per cent from its previous close at 3,558.66 points.
Some 10 out of 13 sectoral indices finished with losses. The three sectors to post gains were fast moving consumer goods, automobiles, consumer durables and realty.
The biggest losers were capital goods, banks, power and telecommunication, medi and entertainment and technology stocks.
The top gainers were ITC Ltd., up 2.8 per cent followed by Ranbaxy Laboratories, up 1.86 per cent, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd., 1.03 per cent, and Maruti Suzuki, up 0.73 per cent.
The top losers were Jaiprakash Associates, down 6.04 per cent, Hindalco, down 5.19 per cent, Reliance Communications, down 5.15 per cent and Grasim Industries, down 4.62 per cent.
“When there is buying the volumes are thin, but when there is selling the volumes are big so that there is consensus on selling but no consensus on buying,” said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head of the capital markets arm of India's fourth largest share brokerage house, the Delhi-based SMC Group.
He was trying to explain why the markets despite remaining in positive territory for most of the day still ended in the red.
“The nervousness in the market is palpable and any bottom fishing or short covering may push up markets for a while but there is really no energy or enthusiasm to spark off a bull run,” he said.
As many as 1,718 stocks or 66.77 per cent declined, 778 stocks or 30.24 advanced and 77 stocks or 2.99 per cent remained unchanged.
The sentiment was clearly negative so that despite some short covering and bottom fishing which kept the markets in positive territory for most of the day, the markets ultimately ended in the red.
Overnight US markets finished in the green with a key index of the New York Stock Exchange up 0.79 per cent. The Nasdaq index too finished 0.08 per cent higher.
This helped the markets to open higher and since they had already fallen below the 9,000 mark some bounce back was expected analysts said, adding Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's statement on Tuesday that the global financial crisis will end soon also may have helped sentiments to push up values in the morning.
Asian markets, however, were in the red on Wednesday morning with Nikkei, the key index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange down 1.52 per cent and Hang Seng, the key index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange ruling 0.17 per cent lower than its previous close.
So, finally the nervousness prevailed and bears brought down the Sensex to below the 9,000 mark by the end of the day, analysts said.
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