Sensex falls below 17K again

Markets slumped in late-noon trades to end near day's low.

The Sensex opened soft following cues from Asian peers. It managed to recover from morning low's and touched a high of 17,329 on Bharti Airtel and FMCG stocks.

However, the recovery was short-lived and the index fell again in noon following the opening of European markets and the inflation announcement. The Sensex dropped 406 points from the day's high to touch a low of 16,923.

The Sensex finally ended at 16,994 -  down 271 points from the previous close. This way the index dropped below the 17,000 mark after four trading days.

The Nifty ended below the support level at 5,094 - down 85 points.

India's wholesale price index inflation for April eased to 9.59%. Wholesale prices rose 9.59 per cent from a year earlier, data released on Friday showed, a tad above the median forecast for a 9.5 per cent rise and compared with March's pace of 9.9 per cent.

US markets had ended in red on Thursday as investors fretted over the pace of recovery. Asian markets dropped with the Hang Seng falling 1.3%, and the Nikkei down 1.4%, respectively.

All sectoral indices gave up early gains and ended in red, barring healthcare and FMCG. Among the sectoral losers, metal index plunged 3.5% to 15,892. Realty and oil indices dropped as well.

Tata Steel tumbled 4.6% to Rs 549. Sterlite and Hindalco shed 3.5% each at Rs 701 and Rs 164, respectively.

SBI slumped 4% to Rs 2,223 after posting a dissapointing Q4 result. The company's net profit dropped 32% to Rs 1,867 crore in the March quarter as compared to Rs 2,742.31 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2009.

Jaiprakash Associates dropped 2.7% to Rs 130. Larsen & Toubro gained in early trades after winning an order from NHAI, but ended with a loss of Rs 2.6% at rs 1,529. Other realty stock, DLF, was down 2.3% at Rs 299.

Market heavyweight, Reliance declined 2.6% to Rs 1043.

Tata Motors, Infosys, Tata Power, ICICI Bank, Reliance Communications and Hero Honda shed 1-2% each.

Other losers include Maruti, Wipro, HDFC and Mahindra & Mahindra.

However, Bharti Airtel gained after its three-day long loosing streak. The stock ended up 2.2% at Rs 264.

FMCG major, ITC added 0.6% to Rs 268.

Among other stocks in news, Aban Offshore crashed after the company's offshore gas rig in Venezuela sunk near the Venezuelan coast. The stock tumbled 18% to Rs 831.

Other losers in the BSE A group were mostly from metal sector. JSW Steel, Sesa Goa and Gujarat NRE Coke declined 4-5% each.

The market breadth was extremely negative, out of 2,962 shares traded, 2,019 declined and 844 have advanced on the BSE.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS...

Aban Offshore topped the value chart on the BSE with a turnover of Rs 331.62 crore. It was followed by SBI (Rs 244.84 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 122.02 crore), JSW Steel (Rs 119.97 crore) and Reliance Industries (Rs 91.41 crore).

Alok Industries led the volumes chart on the BSE with trades of 24.17 million shares. It was followed by Birla Power (7.91 million), RNRL (5.64 million), Well Pack Papers (5.43 million) and Supertex Industries (4.41 million).