Wild swing on D-Street: How deep is the cut likely to be?

Indian equity benchmarks closed the session lower for the third consecutive day amid an extremely choppy trade on Thursday, led by a fall in heavyweights like SBI, Reliance Industries, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, BHEL, HDFC, Wipro, TCS and HUL.

The Nifty touched the 5200-mark during the day for the first time since June 14, 2010. It fell 27.75 points or 0.53%, to end at 5,225.80 after trading in a tight range of 5210-5250.

The 30-share BSE Sensex slipped 129.73 points or 0.74%, to settle at 17,463.04. Indices showed strong recovery in the middle of the session on short covering but that also fizzled out due to weak European cues. European markets and US index futures were down 0.4-1%.

Delisting Candidates: Foreign promoters holding more than 75%

How deep is the cut likely to be?

Market analyst Rahul Mohindar warns that unless markets are really above 5450 levels there is not any possibility for serious reversal there.

Echoing a similar sentiment, Sajiv Dhawan of JV Capital Services says the markets may tank further depending on more negative news including scams expose. This, Dhawan, thinks that may led foreign intuitional investors (FIIs) to sell even more.

According to Dhawan, the markets need to get above 5500-5600 to be attractive.

"The real problem is not just the selling its just a complete lack of buying conviction and it doesn