Markets Ends Deep in Red

Markets ended in the negative after swinging between gains and losses due to selling in index heavyweights-ITC, Mahindra & Mahindra and Reliance Industries. The concerns over slowing global growth weighed. The S&P CNX Nifty opened in the green and touched a high of 5,434 in the morning session. The index was choppy for a brief period before giving into selling pressure in the afternoon trades. The Nifty closed near day's low, at 5,332, down 73 points and the benchmark Sensex ended at 17,693, down 247 points. Among index heavyweights, RIL, ITC and M&M dragged the Sensex down by 91 points. Across the world markets were trading lower on fears of US economic outlook. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average jumped 1% intraday after the government intervened to curb the rising Yen. However the index was unable to hold on to the gains and ended in the red, down 0.2%. Elsewhere, South Korea's Kospi Composite tumbled 2.3%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped 0.5% and China's Shanghai Composite index added 0.2%. Interest rate sensitives-BSE Auto and Realty shares were leading the losses, down over 2% each. Top losers from the Auto pack were Mahindra & Mahindra, down almost 4%, Bajaj Auto and Ashok Lelyand lost over 2.5% each. Prominent losers from the realty sector were Anant Raj Industries, down over 7%, HDIL plunged almost 6% and Parsvanath Developers lost 3%. In the broader markets, BSE midcap and smallcap indices were down over 0.5% each.