February 10: mid-sessions' report

The Indian markets witnessed some heavy sell-off in the mid-session,  courtesy to banking stocks like PNB, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank and Central Bank of India which were down in the range of 5 to 10 per cent.

Nifty was trading down by more than 67 points at 7231; and the Sensex by 204 points at 23816. Both the leading indicators were down 0.97 and 0.88 per cent respectively.

The advance-decline ratio was on the negative side as 1756 scrips were trading in the negative territory, 474 scrips were in the green, however 107 stocks remained unchanged on the NSE.

Top Nifty Gainers: HCL Technologies is leading the gainer list as it was trading up by close to 2 per cent followed by Infosys, Reliance Industries, Sun Pharma and Power Grid which were up 1.41, 0.87, 0.67 and 0.28 per cent respectively.

Top Nifty Losers: PNB is leading the losers list down by 7 per cent, followed by Hindalco, Cairn India, Bank of Baroda and Adani Ports & SEZ.

All the sectors were trading in red apart from CNX IT. PSU Bank Index was the top loser down by 3.71 per cent. Followed by CNX Metals and CNX Auto, which were down by 2.38 and 1.13 per cent respectively. Mid-Caps and Small-Caps also saw deep cuts as they were down 0.90 and 1.15 per cent respectively.

Most of the Asian markets were closed on account of Lunar Holiday. Two major Asian Markets Japanese Nikkei and Singapore’s Straight Times were also trading in red as they were down 2.31 and 2.22 per cent respectively.

In commodities, crude oil prices trimmed some of their sharp losses and suffered overnight. U.S. crude was up 2.1 percent at $28.53 a barrel.

Buzzer: -Investors wary of the banking sector saw the Bank Nifty down with heavy volumes. Most of the banking stocks crashed more than 4 per cent in trades. PNB (7%), Bank of Baroda (5.23%), IDBI Bank (4.31%) etc.

Major reason for the market sell-off can be attributed to the concerns related to the banking sector, with major blow coming due to commodity meltdown.

Second half will be keenly watched with European markets expected to open in positive territory. Domestically results are expected from major companies like ACC, Ambuja Cement, Cipla, Petronet LNG and GMR Infrastructure. Markets are expected to take cues from the European markets going forward in the day.