At 10:59 hours IST, the Nifty was trading sharply lower and even tested the 4650 level but managed to retrace from the same level. Banking, technology, cement, FMCG, auto, select power and metal stocks were witnessing selling pressure. Heavyweight Reliance Industries fell over 2% after 5.6% rally on Wednesday. ONGC, L&T and HDFC slipped 1.7-2.4%.

However, telecom stocks bucked the trend. GAIL surged 6%. BHEL, Suzlon, Cairn, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Jaiprakash Associates and Unitech were the other gainers.

Negative Asian markets also weighed on the markets. Kospi was up 1.5% and Nikkei gained 1.2%. Hang Seng fell 0.9%. Straits Times, Taiwan and Jakarta declined 0.4%.

The Sensex was down 185 points at 15,725 and the Nifty fell 48 points to 4,662. The Nifty November futures were trading with 8 points discount. However, the broader indices were outperforming the benchmark indices, up 0.8% each. About 1,616 shares advanced while 1,288 shares declined on the BSE. Nearly 860 shares were unchanged.

Telecom stocks like Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications gained over 2%.

Wipro Consumer Care acquired Yardley's Asia, West Asia, Australia operations for $45.5 million. This is a second acquisition by Wipro Consumer Care post Unza in 2007. Wipro was down 2.6%.

Government sources said would appoint consultant to decide future shape of IFCI. Consultant would advise on government's role in IFCI, advice on government's debenture holding in IFCI. Souces also said government was open to all options including exiting IFCI. The stock shot up 7%.

Suzlon Energy surged 6.7%, as it was planning to repay $850 million debt from RE Power, Hansen acquisition. Suzlon pledged 1.79% further stake to Indiabulls Financial Services. Its total pledged stake with Indiabulls Financial stood at 6.38%.

In the midcap space, Wockhardt and Spice Communication gained 14%. Rashtriya Chemical, IFCI and Patni Computer went up 5-8%. However, REI Six Ten, Kansai Nerolac, India Cements, Nagarjuna Construction and Atlas Copco fell 2.5-6.5%.

In the smallcap space, Murli, TV TodayNetwork, SpiceJet, Hinduja Venture and C and C Construction moved up 6-12%. However, Webel SL Energy, Prime Securities, MSP Steel, Advani Hotels and Jindal Worldwid lost 4-5%.

Continued on the next page...