Sensex sheds its morning gains

Today's major news
NTPC fixes FPO price at Rs201, the stock slides 2.46%
Bajaj Auto’s January sales doubles, the stock closed 1.93% lower
Zylog Systems acquires Canadian firm for Rs150 crore, the stock rises 1.46%
Chromatic India’s board approves bonus shares; the stock jumps 4.99%
Siemens receives Rs100 crore order; the stock ends the day lower by 1.40%
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Post-market summary
Global signals
On Tuesday, the European indices that had opened weak on the back of disappointing results of BP erased their losses. At the time of writing this report the FTSE 100 was up by 0.26%.
Among the major Asian indices, all the indices closed lower except Nikkei and Hang Seng that closed with gains. The SGX Nifty fell by 83 points.
US stock futures opened marginal lower, as investors awaited data on pending home sales and results of Pepsi.
Indian indices
Taking lead from the buoyant global markets, the domestic markets opened higher with the Sensex opening 12 points higher and extending its gains to touch the day’s high of 16526. However, in the afternoon session the market was caught in volatility and tumbled by almost 400 points from its high to touch the day’s low of 16129 after the Asian indices closed off the day’s high and the European stock markets opened weak. The selling pressure in heavyweights like Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank also added to the weakness. At the finishing line, the Sensex closed at 16163, 192 points lower. The Nifty closed 69 points lower at 4830.
Sensex sentiment
The declining stocks outnumbered the advancing stocks: Of the 2,963 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,788 stocks declined whereas 1,105 stocks advanced. Seventy stocks closed unchanged.
Sectoral and stock screening
Bears trampled all the sectors with the BSE Realty Index getting hit the most, by 2.45%. The BSE Bankex was hit by 1.99% and the BSE PSU Index lost 1.71%. The BSE Metal Index and the BSE Oil & Gas Index were down by 1.57% each. The remaining sectoral indices slipped by around 0.46% to 1.46% each.
The star of the day was Spice Communications, which was up by 16.59%, followed by Jain Irrigation, which surged by 4.05%, and Dr Reddy’s, which rose by 3.37%. Among the laggards Tulip Telecom slid the most (by 6.40%), followed by PTC India, which fell by 4.57%, and Jet Airways that shed 4.37%.
Viewing volumes
Industrial finance company IFCI saw the highest trading volumes with over 1.23 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. It was followed by realty major Unitech (1.15 crore shares), wind turbine major Suzlon Energy (1.00 crore shares), Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (0.95 crore shares) and Ispat Industries (0.47 crore shares).