Mkts succumb to profit booking: Sensex sheds 150 pts

The markets opened with modest gain today but could not maintain the lead and slipped within half an hour of trade. It traded weak throughout the day on account of selling pressure witnessed across the board and cracked rapidly in the last few minutes of trade. Consumer durable followed by auto, capital good and banking stocks were the worst hit sectors in today's trade.

At 15.47 pm IST, the Sensex is down 149.52 points or 1.04% at 14253.38, and the Nifty down 57.60 points or 1.38% at 4106.95. About 661 shares have advanced, 1861 shares declined, and 53 shares are unchanged.

The Midcap Index ended down 1.23% or 73 points at 5,877.90 and Smallcap Index closed in red at 7,214.73 down 102.20 points or 1.40%

Auto index was down 84 points or 1.5% at 5,537.42. Hind Motors, Punj Tractors, Cummins, Ashok Leyland and Apollo Tyres were top losers.

Bankex plummets 102.86 points or 1.41% at 7,186.24. Karnataka Bank, Vijaya Bank, Kotak Mahindra, IOB and UTI Bank plunges most.

Cap good was down 142.69 points or 1.48% at  9,503.10. Alstom Projects, Aban Offshore, Crompton Greave, ABB and Bharat Elec were the hardest hit stocks.

FMCG ended down 10 points at 1,880.83. Nestle, HLL, Dabur India, Shaw Wallace and Colgate were the top losers.

Health Care closed down 5 pointa at 3,798.19. Glenmark, Sterling Bio, Aventis Pharma, Cadila Health, FDC and Divis Labs declined most.

IT ended in red 41 points at 5,533.83. Moser Baer, Mphasis, HCL Info, Wipro and Patni Computer declined most. 

Metal index was down 41.67 points at  8,865. SAIL, Guj NRE Coke, Hind Zinc and NALCO were top losers. 

Oil & gas ended down 49.98 points or 0.74% at  6,683.43. ONGC, Reliance Natural, Petronet LNG and MRPL were the worst hit.

Today's Turnover

The NSE cash turnover was at Rs 7792.17 crore and the NSE F&O turnover was at Rs 39292.32 crore. The BSE cash turnover was Rs 3873.5 crore. Total market wide turnover was at Rs 50957.99 crore.

F&O