Markets End Deep in Red

The Sensex closed lower for the second consecutive day with the Sensex closing down 207 points at 18,137 and the Nifty shed 60 points to close at 5,438. The main draggers for the day is the Oil & Gas index which closed the day in red declining more than 3 percentage points followed by the Banking and PSU indices closing the day declining more than two percentage points. The result announcement of State Bank of India proved to be ominous. Thereafter, the Sensex dropped to touch the day's low of 18,097 down 339 points from the day's high. In results that were below street expectations, the country's largest public sector bank reported an 8.9% dip in its consolidated net profit at Rs 10,684.9 crore for the year ended March 31, 2011. For the year-ago period, the net profit was Rs 11,733.8 crore. The stock has slid by nearly 7% at Rs 2414. The market breadth is very negative. Of the total 2832 stocks traded on the BSE, 1778 stocks have advanced while 937 declined.