The key benchmark indices are in red in the afternoon deals of Tuesday. Fears of more losses from the US mortgage crisis globally weighed on the sentiment. Auto, realty, IT stocks declined. Maruti Suzuki India fell more than 4.5%. ACC fell close to 4%. Reliance Industries was flat
At 12:22 IST, the BSE 30-share Sensex was down 123.28 points or 0.82% to 14,525.15. At the day’s low of 14,481.13, the Sensex lost 164.53 in early trade. At day’s high of 14,584.23, the index lost 61.43 points in early trade.
The S&P CNX Nifty was down 35.5 points or 0.81% to 4,357.55.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.65% to 5,743.94 and the BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.47% at 7,003.90.
The market breadth was weak on BSE with 844 shares advancing as compared to 1,455 that declined. 89 shares remained unchanged.
India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries was flat at Rs 2,224.50. It recovered from the session's low of Rs 2,199.
Reliance Natural Resources clocked the highest volume of 58.96 lakh shares on BSE. Vishal Information Technologies (51.57 lakh shares), Ispat Industries (36.19 lakh shares), IFCI (31.73 lakh shares) and Reliance Petroleum (30.68 lakh shares) were the other volume toppers in that order.
Realty stocks plunged. Housing Development & Infrastructure (down 2.26% to Rs 408.50), Unitech (down 3.06% to Rs 162.90), DLF (down 1.89% to Rs 491.30) edged lower. However Indiabulls Real Estate rose 0.79% to Rs 304.60.
IT stocks edged lower. Satyam Computer Services (down 2.2% to Rs 409.90), Infosys (down 0.41% to Rs 1,695.35) and Wipro (down 0.38% to Rs 430.25) edged lower. India’s largest IT exporter by sales Tata Consultancy Services rose 0.24% to Rs 843.80.
Banking stocks fell. Axis Bank (down 1.51% to Rs 681.95), State Bank of India (down 0.9% to Rs 1,443.90) and HDFC Bank (down 0.79% to Rs 1,191.90) edged lower.
India’s largest commercial bank State Bank of India fell 1.23% to Rs 1,439.80. The bank’s chairman O.P. Bhatt today, 19 August 2008, said a planned strike by bank unions against mergers between state banks was unlikely to hinder its plans to acquire State Bank of Saurashtra. Bhatt also said credit growth this year was much better than last year.