Nifty below 5250; ADAG, infra nosedive

Equity benchmarks smashed out in afternoon trade at 14:46 hours, and were unstoppable in fall since previous week, especially after breaking the 5400 level. Infrastructure and Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) companies' shares were slaughtered followed by metal, auto (barring M&M), telecom, PSU oil & gas sectors, which hammered the Nifty to hit 5250 level.

Nifty February 5300 call added 15 lakh shares in open interest, but in options - Nifty 5100 put and 5200 put were quite active with addition of 6 lakh shares & 5 lakh shares in open interest.

ADAG companies' shares - Reliance Infrastructure was the biggest lower - crashed 23% followed by Reliance Capital, Reliance Mediaworks, Reliance Power and Reliance Communications with 12-18% fall.

Infrastructure companies' shares too were taking huge beating - BHEL plunged over 5% and Jaiprakash Associates tumbled 11%. L&T was down 1.33% and NTPC fell nearly 2%. Suzlon Energy plummeted 6%.

ONGC was the leading loser with 2.5% fall while Reliance Industries came off its day's high - trading with 0.5% rise. TCS, SBI, Bharti Airtel and ITC were down 1-2%.

Hindalco and Sesa Goa from metal space cracked 5.6% each. Tata Steel, Sterlite Industries, Jindal Steel and SAIL were down 1.5-3%. Bajaj Auto, Hero Honda and Tata Motors from auto pack plunged 3-4% followed by Maruti with 1.5% fall while M&M rallied 5% post strong set of numbers.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 17,535, down 240 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty tanked 77 points to 5,235. The broader indices cracked the most as compared to benchmarks - the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices crashed 4% each.

However, HDFC (up 2%) , ICICI Bank (up 1.5%), Sun Pharma (up 4%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 5%) and HUL were the only leading gainers.

In midcap space, Den Networks, Nava Bharat Ventures, Shriram City, eClerx Services and Sanwaria Agro were up 1.5-4% while Parsvnath, Prakash Inds, BASF, Aban Offshore and BEML fell 15-20%.

In smallcap space, Lok Housing, Dion Global, Newtime Infra, Shristi Infra and Symphony gained 4-8% whereas Nitesh Estates, MIC Electronics, Polyplex Corp and Falcon Tyres lost 15-18%.

About 431 shares advanced as against 2419 shares declined on Bombay Stock Exchange.

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Nifty in tight range; RIL, HDFC, ICICI Bank up

Indian equity benchmarks were extremely volatile in trade at 13:41 hours - the Nifty was trying very hard to hold 5300 level amid a tight range of 5280-5330. Infrastructure, metal, telecom, auto, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and technology companies' shares were putting pressure on markets. About seven shares tumbled as against one share gained on National Stock Exchange.

Major fall was seen in BHEL, Tata Motors, Hindalco, Reliance Power and Sesa Goa - down 4% each. Jaiprakash Associates was the biggest loser with 7.5% fall. Heavyweights like ONGC, ITC, SBI and NTPC too were under pressure.

However, HDFC was the leading gainer with 4% gain followed by Reliance Industries with 0.8% rally. Chairman of HDFC, Deepak Parekh said would be looking to divest part of unlisted investments by March and would look to sell individual non-core investments to PE players or to companies directly.

M&M rallied 5.5% after strong set of numbers. It has reported a net profit of Rs 735 crore for the quarter ended December 2010, up 78% as compared to Rs 414 crore in same quarter the previous year.

Among other leaders - Sun Pharma was up 4% and Kotak Mahindra Bank rallied over 5%. Country's second largest lender ICICI Bank rose 2%. HDFC Bank, HUL and Power Grid were up 0.5%.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 17,805, up 30 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 12 points at 5,325.

Rahul Mohindar, viratechindia.com, though concerned, says that market may pause at around 5150-5200. He explains that without a global support, the market may drift further downward driven by panic caused by traders.  Mohindar warns that auto and banks may drag the market further.

In midcap space, Nava Bharat Ventures, Dish TV India, Shriram City, Sanwaria Agro and Den Networks rallied 2-3%.

However, Parsvnath and Prakash Industries crashed 20%. Jai Corp, Man Infra and BEML fell 10-12%.

In smallcap space, Lok Housing, Surana Inds, Shristi Infra, Symphony and Newtime Infra gained 5-10% while Bliss GVS, MIC Electronics, DQ Entertainment, Ansal Properties and Gujarat Apollo slipped 11-12%.

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Sensex volatile; midcaps under pressure

The benchmark Sensex was hovering around its previous closing value amid a choppy trade at 11:48 hours while the Nifty was holding the 5300 level - an important psychological level, led by smart recovery from day's low of 5,253.55 - lowest level since July 08, 2010.

Metal, auto, technology, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, power and cement companies' shares were not supporting the markets. Heavyweights BHEL and ITC too were putting pressure with loss of 3% & 1.5%, respectively.

Nilesh Shah of Envision Capital believes that the fourth quarter numbers could be far worse than third quarter's.