Nifty tanks again, below 5850; ONGC, HDFC, L&T slip

At 11:10 hours IST - equity benchmarks slipped to near early day's low again amid volatility, due to sell-off in capital goods, auto, metal (barring Sterlite), private financial and healthcare companies' shares. ONGC, Wipro, TCS, ITC and Reliance Industries were also adding pressure on markets.

However, buying continued in Sterlite, SBI, Bharti, Infosys, PNB, HUL, Power Grid, Reliance Infrastructure, Tata Power, Bajaj Auto and ACC, which capped losses to some extent.

Nandan Chakraborty of Enam said, "There are headwinds, both domestic and global making 2011 quite volatile. Hence, risk-reward for the Sensex may remain unfavourable this year. Also there are risks to earnings growth in case of delayed capex and rising costs & subsidies."

All sectoral indices were in red. The BSE Capital Goods Index plunged 2% followed by Auto, Healthcare, Power, Bank, Oil & Gas and Realty indices with fall of 0.5-1%.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 19,472, with loss of 219 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty tanked 68 points to 5,836. Even the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were down 0.7% each. About 347 shares advanced as against 907 shares declined on National Stock Exchange.

L&T and BHEL from capital goods space cracked 3.5% & 2.5%, respectively. Heavyweight ONGC lost 1.8% and Reliance Industries fell 0.9%.

HDFC and HDFC Bank from financial space tumbled 3.5-4%; Kotak Mahindra Bank was down 3% and ICICI Bank down 0.9%. However, Axis Bank and PNB were marginally in green. Even SBI was quite supportive.

In auto pack, Hero Honda plunged 3.66%; Tata Motors, M&M and Maruti were down 0.7-1.5%. Wipro from technology pack crashed 3% and TCS lost 0.7% while Infosys rose 0.2%.

Cipla, Ranbaxy Labs, Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy's Labs from healthcare segment were down 1.4-3%.

In midcap space, HCC, Indiabulls Financial, Cholamandalam, State Bank of Mysore and Torrent Pharma were up 2-3.6% while Eicher Motors cracked 15.89%. Money Matters, KGN Industries, Amtek Auto and Whirlpool fell 4-5%.

In smallcap space, Sudarshan Chemical, Ganesh Housing, Rollatainers, Sagar Cement and Zenith Infotech rallied 5.6-7% whereas Riddhi Siddhi, Tilaknagar Industries, Magma Fincorp, Murli and Premier tanked 6-10%.

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Sensex volatile after initial sell-off; Infy, SBI lead

At 10:27 hours IST - the benchmark Sensex showed smart recovery after initial sell-off, led by support from heavyweights like Infosys, SBI, Reliance Industries, HUL, Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank. Index had shed more than 220 points in early trade and even the Nifty tested 5850 level.

Shruti Vora, Technical Analyst, Antique Stock Broking expects the Nifty to pullback till about 6,000-6,050 in today