Markets End in Red

Selling pressure in frontline stocks-ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel and Tata Power, dragged markets lower shrugging off firm cues from Europe. The Nifty opened in the negative and touched a low of 5,128 tracking weak global cues. The index changed lanes and touched a high of 5,184 in the afternoon session following a recovery in Asian indices and rally in European markets. However, selling in select banking and frontline shares dragged the index in the last leg of the trade. The Nifty finally ended at 5,138, down 23 points and the Sensex closed at 17,059, down 71 points. On the global front, European stocks erased their gains as Societe Generale (GLE)  SA,France’s second-biggest bank, gave up its earlier advance. U.S. index futures pared their increase. Societe Generale slid 4.9 percent, extending yesterday’s 15 percent plunge that prompted Chief Executive Officer Frederic Oudea to defend the company and say speculation that France’s creditworthiness is in doubt is “absolute rubbish.”