Global cues drag Sensex 101 pts down; oil & gas, banks dip

ALSO READ See Key Market Stats - Top Gainers/ Losers, Most Actives, Highs/Lows See how Global Markets are trading Indian ADRs Nifty BSE | NSE 31/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty?

Indian equity benchmarks fell half a percent amid a choppy trade on Wednesday following weak global cues post Ben Bernanke comments. Oil & gas, financial, metal, healthcare and cement companies' shares dragged the market lower.

US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged an economic slowdown in the United States, but offered no suggestion of further stimulus to support growth, souring sentiment across equity markets and towards the dollar as investors expect US interest rates to remain low for a longer period of time.

Tim Condon, head of research, Asia, ING Financial Markets said Bernanke really did disappoint with his speech. "It has heightened the fact that monetary policy in the US is really not doing anything to allay fears of global growth slowdown."

European markets like France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were trading about one percent lower, at the time of closing of Indian equities. US index futures namely Dow Jones and NASDAQ too were down half a percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 101.33 points, to close at 18,394.29 and the 50-share NSE Nifty dropped 29.3 points, to end at 5,526.85.

Vivek Mavani, Vice President - Equity at Brics Securities feels that market should continue to find support at roughly about 5300 on the Nifty which is where it bounced back from last week. "At least at this stage it doesn't seem so bad that we will probably break even 5000. But things could change," he said.

Heavyweights dragged the market down. ONGC, Sun Pharma and Hindalco tumbled more than 2%. ONGC dropped to number 4 for first time ever and lost nearly Rs 40,000 crore in market cap since April-end.

Reliance Industries, SBI, HDFC, Infosys, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank slipped 0.7-1.6%. Hero Honda was the top loser, with falling nearly 4%. Sterlite Industries, Axis Bank, SAIL, Bajaj Auto and Maruti Suzuki were down over 1%.

However, TCS gained marginally after it overtook ONGC in terms of market cap. Its market cap increased by Rs 4,000 crore since April-end.

ITC, HUL and NTPC were leading gainers on Nifty, with gaining 1-1.5%. Reliance Communications was the top gainer, with rising nearly 2.5%; US tower firm Crown Castle entererd into race for its arm Reliance Infratel, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting sources.

BPCL, BHEL, Wipro, DLF and Tata Motors were other gainers.

Midcaps

DB Realty rallied nearly 7% post good numbers in FY11. Motherson Sumi, Whirlpool, Indian Metals and Tata Global Beverage went up 4-6%.

However, Tecpro Systems, KGN Industries, India Infoline, SKS Microfinance and Puravankara Projects lost 3-5%.

Smallcaps

Aegis Logistics, Nirlon, Agro Tech Foods, Rohit Ferro and Sonata surged 8-14% while Surana Corp, Som Distilleries, Su-raj Diamonds, Falcon Tyres and SV Electricals slipped 5%.

Market breadth too was in favour of declines - about 574 shares advanced as against 705 shares declined on National Stock Exchange.

(With inputs from Reuters)