Nifty at new 7-mth lows; Bharti worst hit

Indian equity benchmarks continued their downtrend today as well at 10:45 hours and were trading at new seven-month lows amid a choppy trade. Heavyweights like Bharti Airtel (down 5%), SBI (down 3.5%), TCS, Infosys, Reliance Industries, HDFC and BHEL were putting pressure on markets followed by fall in metal, technology and realty companies' shares.

Nifty February 5000 and 4900 puts were also active now, which added 5.5% and 9% in open interest.

Ambareesh Baliga of Karvy Stock Broking fears the Nifty may plummate to the 4,800-4,600 levels backed by the panic in the market. "This is not a time for traders because if you buy from a trading point of view, you could possibly see the markets at possibly 5,000-5,100 levels and you would lose out," he added.

The Nifty was trading below 5250, down 24 points to 5,229 and the Sensex fell 118 points to 17,474. The broader indices like BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices slipped one percent each.

However, consistent buying in Anil Dhiurbhai Ambani Group (ADAG), auto, private banking and power companies' shares were limiting losses to some extent. ONGC, ITC, SAIL, Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy Labs too were up.

Among frontliners, Reliance Infrastructure shot up 9% as company is going to consider share buyback on February 14. Reliance Communications, Reliance Power and Reliance Capital gained 2-4%.

ITC, Hero Honda, Jaiprakash Associates, SAIL and Ranbaxy Labs were up 1-2%.

In metal space, Tata Steel, Sterlite Industries, Hindalco and Sesa Goa slipped 2% each.

New listing - Omkar Special was trading at Rs 61, down 38% as compared to issue price of Rs 98 a share.

In midcap space, Birla Corp, Kalpataru Power, IVRCL Assets, OnMobile Global and Shriram City gained 4% while Parsvnath, PTC India, Punj Lloyd, Escorts and Honeywell Automation fell 7.5-12%.

In smallcap space, Relaxo Footwear, Vindhya Telelink, Emco, West Coast Paper and Dion Global rallied 6-7% whereas Graviss Hosp, Tilaknagar Inds, Globus Spirits, RSWM and R M Mohite fell 10-12%.

About 652 shares advanced as against 1736 shares declined on Bombay Stock Exchange.

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Nifty volatile; pvt banking, ADAG stocks up

The benchmark Nifty was quiet in opening trade and was hovering just around its previous closing value, especially after a deep cut seen on Wednesday. Realty, technology and metal companies' shares were under pressure while ADAG, auto and private financials were seeing buying interest.

Overall environment - 35-50% fall in midcaps along with largecaps - is all reflective of bear markets, says Vibhav Kapoor of IL&FS. He sees 5100-5200 on Nifty at least as a bottom for short term.

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group companies' shares bounced back on short covering after a sharp fall seen yesterday. Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Capital, Reliance Communications and Reliance Power gained 4-8%.

Among frontliners, SAIL, Jaiprakash Associates, Suzlon Tata Motors, TCS, NTPC and BHEL were on buyers' radar.

However, Dr Reddy's Labs, Ambuja Cements, DLF, JSPL, Bharti and Infosys were witnessing selling pressure.

New listing - Omkar Speciality was trading at Rs 63, down 36% as compared to issue price of Rs 98 a share.

Pravin Herlekar, CMD of company Omkar Speciality Chemicals said major expansion would add more revenues in FY12-13. "In current year, we had a target of Rs 100 in revenues and we alread crossed Rs 92 crore. We will add 200 metric tonnes in capacity next year, so we expect 35% growth or Rs 135-140 crore in revenues of FY11-12," he said.

Midcap & Smallcap space:

Idea Cellular tanked 7%. Parsvnath tanked 20%. DB Realty was down 7% and Unitech down 5%.

Allied Digital plunged 10%

However, Punj Lloyd, Jain Irrigation, Lanco Infratech and GMR Infra gained 2-3%.

Firstsource rose 3% and Bombay Rayon was up 0.7% post quarterly results.

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Global cues:

Asian markets were down barring Shanghai. Hang Seng, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan fell 0.6-1%. However, Shanghai rose 0.7%.

The US markets ended flat amid Ben Bernanke