Sensex loses over 150 pts; metals, oil & gas dip

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At 14:54 hours IST, the benchmark Sensex remained under selling pressure though it recovered over 50 points from the day's low ahead of Monetary Policy on Tuesday. Weak global cues on the back of Goldman Sachs fraud charges weighed on the markets today.

Asian markets witnessed more selling pressure than Indian markets; Shanghai slipped 4.8% as there were reports that China cabinet would take further steps to control speculative buying in property sector. Taiwan was down over 3% and Hang Seng was down 2%. Jakarta, Nikkei, Straits Times and Kospi were down 1.3-1.8%. European markets already factored in Goldman Sachs' news, which were flat in trade; these indices were down over 1% on Friday.

Oil & gas exploration, metal, technology, realty, auto, FMCG, power and cement companies' shares were down. BHEL, SBI, HDFC Bank, Ranbaxy and Sun Pharma were the other losers in trade.

However, buying in HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, M&M, NTPC, Cipla, IDFC, L&T and ICICI Bank capped the losses to some extent.

The Sensex was trading at 17410, down 180 points and the Nifty was at 5203, down 59 points. The broader indices declined 1% each.

The market breadth was in favour of declines; about 875 shares advanced while 2073 shares declined on the BSE. Nearly 299 shares were unchanged.

In the midcap space, KS Oils, Essar Shipping, IndusInd Bank, Allahabad Bank and Jain Irrigation gained 3-5% while Jet Airways, Usha Martin, Amtek Auto, Phoenix Mills and Triveni Engg fell 5%.

In the smallcap space, Aqua Logistics, Falcon Tyres, Graviss Hospital, TTK Prestige and Asian Star went up 5.5-13% while Prime Securities, Nagarjuna Agri, Take Solutions, Sonata and Shirpur Gold lost 5-10%.