Nifty below 5950; Strides slumps 13%, NTPC down 3%

Moneycontrol Bureau

Situation in the stock markets worsened, with benchmark indices falling nearly half a percent. While, Nifty languished below the 5950 mark, cuts in midcaps got deeper in the late afternoon trade. Strides Arcolab crashed 12.9 percent as investors cast doubt on media reports that the drug maker may sell its injectable-medicines unit Agila Specialties. NTPC was trading down 2.9 percent; its OFS was fully subscribed.

At 14.39 PM, the Sensex was down 87.03 points or 0.44% at 19552.69, and the Nifty was 27.20 points or 0.46% at 5932.00. In last four sessions, midcaps have lost 2.5 percent.
 
While Sterlite Industries lost 3.11 percent in trade so far, Cipla, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, GAIL fell in the range of 2.27 percent to 2.87 percent.

IT stocks have had a good run today with TCS and Mahindra Satyam rising over 1 percent; Infosys moved up half a percent.

In the banking space, the HDFC duo were up but SBI, ICICI Bank and Bank of Baroda fell 1-3.24 percent. Karnataka Bank fell 4.3 percent. Manappuram Finance was the noticiable loser in the non-banking space; the stock fell more than 10 percent.