Sensex closes below 16000

Having slipped below the 16,000 level during the day, the markets ended in the red for an eighth consecutive session on Monday.

The BSE Sensex ended at 15,946, down 425 points and the Nifty ended at 4,778, down 128 points.

The Nifty too had slipped below the 4800 level, during the trading session.

The BSE benchmark index touched the day's high at 16,297 and the day's low at 15,900. ICICI Bank, Infosys and Reliance Industries were the major draggers, accounting for a 147 point loss to the Sensex.

Reliance Industries traded lower by 2.6% at Rs 787 after the Oil Ministry sanctioned taking "scrupulous" action against Reliance Industries for natural gas output from its KG-D6 fields having fallen below the target.

In Asia, shares fell as uncertainty remained over how euro zone leaders would respond to mounting funding difficulties for European banks, and an apparent failure by US politicians to agree on deficit reduction hurt sentiment.

The Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng indices ended down 1% each.

European shares, too, were set to fall, with spreadbetters seeing London's FTSE 100 opening down 0.9% and Frankfurt's DAX and Paris' CAC-40 down 0.8%.

Meanwhile, the rupee hit a new 32-month low in early trades as negative local shares and dollar demand from oil refiners weighed.

At 9:15 am, the partially convertible rupee was at 51.4950/5150 per dollar, compared with Friday's close of 51.3350/3450, after touching 51.5400, a level last seen on March 16, 2009.

BSE Metal, Bankex and Realty indices were leading the losses in an extremely weak environment, down 3-4% each.

JSW Steel, Sesa Goa, SAIL and Sterlite Industries, 5-7% each, were the prominent losers from the Metals space.

ICICI Bank, Federal Bank, Bank of India and Canara Bank, down 4-5%

each, were the major losers among the financials.

Among the Sensex 30 stocks, Tata Motors shed 5% at Rs 162 and was the top loser.

Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) plunged 5% to Rs 262 on the back of huge volumes. The stock registered its fresh 52-week low price of Rs 260 in intra-day deals today.

Other prominent losers were ICICI Bank, Sterlite Industries and DLF, down 4-5% each.

The prominent gainers from the pack were Maruti Suzuki and Sun Pharma Industries, up marginally.

Among individual stocks, shares of Orissa Minerals Development Company (OMDC) shed 7% or Rs 2,892 at Rs 39,699 after the company deferred the proposal of sub-division of its equity shares.

"The company, at its board meeting, held on Friday, decided to defer the proposal of sub-division of face value of shares," it said in a release.

Bharti Airtel also traded lower by nearly 2% at Rs 389 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) after the Central Bureau of Investigation conducted searches at company's office in Gurgaon.

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar have been named in a first information report (FIR) filed by the CBI on Saturday, over alleged irregularities in spectrum allocation.

This time, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime during Pramod Mahajan's tenure as telecom minister has come under attack.

Stocks from the retail sector like Pantaloon Retail, Shoppers Stop, V2 Retail and Trent which gained ground last week,  crashed in trades today.

The stocks had been gaining on the back of news reports that the government may allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday threatened to launch nation-wide agitations against the central government's move to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,974 stocks have declined against 786 advancing ones, on the BSE.