Sensex sinks 321 pts, Nifty ends below 7050; banks, infra drag

Moneycontrol Bureau3:30 pm Market closing: The market closed lower for second consecutive session ahead of Railway Budget and F&O expiry. The Sensex fell 321.25 points or 1.37 percent to 23088.93 and the Nifty dropped 90.85 points or 1.28 percent to 7018.70.

More than two shares declined for every share advancing on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

BHEL, NTPC, Tata Motors, Hindalco Industries, HDFC and Vedanta topped selling list on Nifty, down 3-5 percent while BPCL rallied 4.5 percent and Power Grid Corp gained 2 percent followed by Bharti Airtel, M&M, Yes Bank, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, HUL and Axis Bank.2:59 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks extended losses with the Sensex falling 338.05 points or 1.44 percent to 23072.13 and the Nifty down 94.50 points or 1.33 percent to 7015.05.2:50 pm Buzzing: Shares of Kridhan Infra spiked 11 percent intraday on getting largest maiden order for EPC works in Singapore.

"Kridhan, through its subsidiary KH Foges Pte, has won orders worth 50.8 million Singapore dollar (over Rs 247 crore) in Singapore for EPC works and foundation engineering," the Mumbai-based infrastructure company said in its filing.

Order includes entire EPC work for a new flyover including construction of viaduct and underpass for value of Rs 226 crore for the Government of Singapore.

With this order, total consolidated order book stood at Rs 665 crore, Kridhan said.

2:40 pm BHEL in news: State-owned BHEL has successfully commissioned a 40-mw hydro-electric generating unit in West Bengal."The unit has been commissioned at the 4x40 mw Teesta Low Dam Hydro Electric Project (HEP) stage-IV in West Bengal," the company said in a statement today. With this, Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has commissioned hydro sets totaling 770 mw in the current financial year, it said.

The project is a run-of-the-river greenfield project on the Teesta in Darjeeling district of West Bengal. The other three units of the project are also at advanced stages of execution and the second unit is expected to be commissioned shortly. 2:20 pm Post Office project: A Rs 4,909 crore project for computerisation and networking of 1.55 lakh post offices across the country is being implemented by the government, Lok Sabha was informed today.

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the project involves providing a central server-enabled integrated, modular and scalable solution for all operations of the Department of Posts.

These include provision of core banking and insurance solutions in all departmental post offices and provision of 1,000 ATMs.

"As on February 22, 2016, 17,057 post offices are utilising Core Banking Solution. Core Insurance Solution is rolled out in 805 head post offices and the corresponding sub offices. 510 ATMs have been installed," he said during Question Hour.Also read - Budget 2016: Crop insurance key for other agri schemes, says ITC2:00 pm Market Check

The market remained under pressure in afternoon trade, tracking weakness in Europe post fall in Asian and US peers. The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 155.23 points or 0.66 percent to 23254.95 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 37.10 points or 0.52 percent to 7072.45.

The market breadth continued to be weak as about two shares declined for every share advancing on the BSE.

HDFC, ITC, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, TCS and Sun Pharma were down 1-3 percent. NTPC slipped for third consecutive session, down nearly 3 percent on last day of offer for sale through which the government will sell its 5 percent stake in company to garner around Rs 5,000 crore.

Infosys, Axis Bank, SBI and Bharti Airtel outperformed, up over 1 percent followed by Maruti and Reliance Industries.