Markets End Deep in Red

The markets closed the day on a negative note. The Sensex ended at 18,109, down 204 points while the Nifty ended at 5,456 down 60 points. All the indices across the Asian markets ended on a week note. The Hang Seng index ended at 22,422, the Shanghai Composite index ended at 2,679, while the Nikkei ended at 9,845, having shed 1%, each. European indices CAC, DAX and FTSE100 were down, between 0.2-0.5% each. Among the index stocks - ITC, ICICI Bank and Infosys are the chief draggers, accounting for a loss of over 30 points each on the Sensex. Larsen & Toubro and SBI follow suit with losses of around 25 points each. The BSE Realty index continues to sag, and is now down 2.5% at 2,000. Banking and Metal indices are down nearly 2% each. The market breadth is fairly bearish, with declining shares outnumbering advances in the ratio of around 2.5:1 on the BSE.