Sensex ends 136 pts down; realty, metals, cap goods plunge

Indian shares plummeted in last couple of hours of trade on Tuesday, erasing all morning gains due to weakness in capital goods, metals, banks, realty and FMCG stocks, and also on account of less hopes of encouraging numbers from rate sensitives.

Banks, real estate and capital goods, all three sectors are not likely to put really the encouraging numbers, says SP Tulsian, sptulsian.com. Infosys kicked off earnings season with reducing full year EPS and dollar revenues guidance last week and then the Reliance Industries posted in-line with expected numbers in the September quarter.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 135.85 points to close at 18,577.70 despite positive global cues. Meanwhile, the 50-share NSE Nifty lost 39.25 points to 5,648, which was the lowest level since September 20.

"Overall the weakness because of the lower results from all these sectors probably will keep the index weak till the expiry," he adds. The Nifty has been in a range of 5600-5800 since the day it hit 5800 level (on October 4).

The BSE Realty Index hit quite hard, losing 3 percent as Unitech, DLF and HDIL plunged 4-6 percent. Indiabulls Real was down 2 percent.

The BSE Metal and Capital Goods indices were down over 1.5 percent.

Shares of Sterlite Industries, Jindal Steel, Hindalco and Tata Steel plummeted 2-2.5 percent while capital goods majors Larsen & Toubro and BHEL fell nearly 2 percent.

Country's largest lenders State Bank of India and ICICI Bank were down 1-1.5 percent while their rival HDFC Bank declined 0.5 percent. But housing finance company HDFC rose 0.5 percent.

Software services exporter Infosys has been fallen for the third consecutive session following disappointing guidance for FY13 last Friday; the stock was down 0.5 percent. Its rival TCS rose 0.3 percent ahead of September quarter earnings on Friday.

Among auto stocks, utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra tumbled 3.66 percent. Commercial vehicle major Tata Motors lost 2.6 percent on weak global sales data in September.

Top car maker Maruti Suzuki rallied 2 percent as the company launched new Alto 800 today. Two-wheeler maker Hero Motocorp was up 1.7 percent.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries lost 1.2 percent despite improvement in its core (refining) business QoQ.

Karnataka Bank closed off day's high. The stock rose 1.5 percent ahead of earnings tomorrow. Media reports said that the ICICI Bank is looking to buy the Karnataka Bank.

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya-led UB group's Kingfisher, United Spirits and UB Holdings gained 4-5 percent. Sources say the United Spirits and Diageo are likely to sign term-sheet in next 10 days. UB group may cede control of United Spirits to Diageo, sources add.

Yes Bank was down over 3 percent on block deals. Reliance Communications, Reliance Power, GVK Power and GMR Infrastructure, Shree Renuka were down 2-4 percent.

Declining shares outnumbered advancing by a ratio of 1699 to 1135 on the BSE.

On the global front, European markets like France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE rose 0.6 percent each, with investors buoyed by the latest batch of US data and earnings and hopeful a meeting of European leaders later in the week can advance plans to tackle Spain and Greece's debts. (With inputs from Reuters)