Sensex nosedives; Mangalore Chemical shoots up 11%

The BSE Sensex continued to trade with 250 points loss, pulled down by oil & gas, banks & financials, capital goods and realty stocks. The market looked sceptical about rate cut in next policy meet as well after RBI's dovish tone saying inflation is still above comfort level due to high crude oil prices and even fiscal deficit is still high. The RBI today kept rates unchanged. Overall inflation currently stands above 7% level.

The BSE Bankex tanked 2.6% or 326 points to 12,202 as country's largest lenders SBI and ICICI Bank fell 2.4% each while rival HDFC Bank was down 2.9%.

The 30-share Sensex tumbled 274 points to 17,665.58, led by 22 components while the 50-share Nifty was down 86 points to 5,378.20.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro slipped 2.2% and state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals fell 3%.

Index heavyweight and India's most valued stock Reliance Industries lost over 2% whereas ONGC dropped nearly 3%. Realty firm DLF went down more than 4%.

In the second line shares, DB Realty, MOIL, Educomp Solutions, Glodyne Tech and Godrej Industries were up 3-9% while VIP Industries, Indiabulls Financial, Sintex Industries, Jai Corp and Syndicate Bank slipped 5-6%.

Shares of Mangalore Chemical shot up 11% after reports indicated that Mangalore Refinery and Petchem, a unit of ONGC has written a letter to UB group chairman Vijay Mallya expressing interest to buy UB group's 30% stake.

About three shares declined for every shares rising on the National Stock Exchange.