Volatile mkt; Sensex ends in negative, metals & cement drag

Selling pressure was seen in metals and cement stocks. BSE Metal Index fell 2.5% as China's Shanghai lost 3.65% after Beijing introduced a fresh set of curbs on the property market to cool home prices. Some of the losers among the metal stocks include Hindalco, SAIL, Jindal Steel, JSW Steel and Sesa Goa shedding around 3-4.5 percent each. ACC (down 3.8 percent), Shree Cement (down 3.1 percent), Ambuja (down 2.3 percent), UltraTech Cement (down 2 percent) were among the losers in the cement space.

High beta stocks like DLF and Reliance Infra (down 3.4 percent each) also dragged the indices during the day. Bajaj Auto fell around 2% on lower than expected sales numbers in February

State-owned hydro power company NHPC  fell as much as 19 percent despite the management's clarification on fall in shares. Shares dropped more than 37 percent in three consecutive sessions amid hefty volumes.

Slipping 11.41 percent, Essar Oil closed the day at  Rs 72.65 on the BSE, despite receiving phase III environmental clearance for its coal bed methane gas field at Raniganj, West Bengal. With the environmental nod granted by the government of India's Ministry of Environment and Forests, the company is allowed to increase drilling to 650 wells.

Meanwhile, on the gainers side were Dr Reddy's Lab, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, TCS and ITC gaining around 1 percent.

Venkys (India) rose 5.4  percent after the company decided to undertake expansion-cum-modernisation programme at an estimated cost of Rs 125 crore.

Marksans Pharma rallied 5 percent as the company entered into a settlement agreement with the holders of foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) for settling USD 26,918,000 worth of FCCBs in principal value.

Sudarshan Sukhani, s2analytics.com advises that it will be an opportunity to initiate a new short-term position, if the market opens weak again tomorrow.

SP Tulsian feels that the market may remain in a tight range or may be having a range of about 100 points from here practically for whole week. "Probably things should subside by tomorrow and then we may have mild positive behaviour of the market for the remaining three, four days in this week," he adds.