Nifty tests 4850; BPCL, IDFC, Unitech, Cipla top losers

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At 14:04 hours IST, the benchmark Sensex was seeing selling pressure and was extremely choppy. Oil & gas, banking, capital goods, telecom, auto, select metal and pharma stocks were the draggers behind this fall. NTPC was down over 2%, the government fixed floor price at Rs 201 a share for its follow-on public offer. The NSE Nifty has tested the 4850 on the downside.

Wipro, ITC, Jaiprakash Associates, Reliance Infrastructure and Tata Power also declined. However, buying in few stocks like HDFC, Infosys, Hindalco, Power Grid, DLF, Sun Pharma, Ambuja Cements and ACC capped the gains to some extent.

Weak European cues also weighed on the markets; CAC, DAX and FTSE slipped 0.4-0.6%. Asian markets also closed lower barring Nikkei which gained 1.6%. Taiwan Weighted fell 1.26% and Kospi was down 0.66%. Straits Times and Shanghai fell 0.2% each. However, Hang Seng rose just 0.14%.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 16254, down 101 points and the Nifty was at 4855, down 44 points. The Nifty February future was trading with 8-10 points discount.

The BSE Midcap was marginally down while the Smallcap Index was still up 0.5%, as about 1610 shares advanced while 1300 shares declined on the BSE. Nearly 227 shares were unchanged.

BPCL, Unitech, IDFC, Cipla, GAIL, Jaiprakash Associates, NTPC, Reliance Communications, SBI and M&M were the top losers, down 1.7-4.4%.

Adani Power (in a block deal - 1 crore shares of the company changed hands on BSE at Rs 100), SBI, Tata Steel, National Fertiliser (NFL received CCEA nod for Feed-Stock Conversion Projects and feed-stock conversion at estimated cost of Rs 4,066 crore), Rashtriya Chemical (RCF), ICICI Bank, DLF and Reliance Industries were the most active shares on the bourses.

Top percentage gainers - Suryalata Spinning, Pasupati Finance, Falcon Tyres, Astec Life, Spice Island and Shree Ashtavinayak shot up 20% each. Uttam Galva, Octav Invest and Zydus Wellness were up 14-15%.

In the midcap space, Spice Communications, REI Six Ten, Emami, NFL and CRISIL went up 5-11% while Tulip Telecom, Mcleod Russel, Atlas Copco, Bajaj Hindusthan and Future Capital fell 3-4.7%.

In the smallcap space, TIL was up 13.19% while Spectacle Ind, Gokul Refoils, Subros, Agro Tech Foods and Elgi Equipments slipped 5-6%.