Sensex, Nifty Erase Gains; Metal, Realty Shares Worst Hit

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 Indexes erased gains on the back of selling pressure in bluechip shares like ITC, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries, HDFC and State Bank of India. The Sensex fell as much as 203 points and the Nifty 50 Index briefly dropped below important psychological level of 10,950 in the noon deals. Earlier in the day, the benchmarks fluctuated between gains and losses and changed direction at least six times before giving up intraday gains.

As of 12:44 pm, the Sensex traded 105 points or 0.3 per cent lower at 37,222 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index declined 0.4 per cent or 42 points to 10,972.

All but one sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Metal Index's over 2 per cent decline. Nifty PSU Bank, Realty, Media and FMCG sector gauges also dropped between 1 and 2.2 per cent each.

On the other hand, Nifty Information Technology Index was the only sectoral gainer, up 0.2 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 Index fell 0.9 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index dropped 1.2 per cent.

Tata Motors was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock fell 6 per cent to Rs 116.75. Yes Bank, Tata Steel, Vedanta, ONGC, Bharti Infratel, Grasim Industries, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Larsen & Toubro and Dr. Reddy's Labs were als among the losers, down between 2 and 4.6 per cent each.

On the flipside, Hero MotoCorp, Eicher Motors, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever, Maruti Suzuki, Tech Mahindra and Tata Consultancy Services were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was extremely bearish as over 1,200 shares were declining while around 500 shares were trading higher on the National Stock Exchange.