Markets End on a Negative Note

The markets in India ended at the day's low, on the back of selling pressure in Metal, IT and Banking stocks. After a flat opening, the markets wilted under selling pressure in late morning trades following Japan's credit rating downgrade by Moody's, citing the country's large budget deficit. The Sensex languished in the red for most part of the day, finally closing down by 213 points at 16,284. Nifty ended down 60 points at 4,888. Asian markets also reeled under selling pressure after erasing morning gains post Moody’s downgrade of Japan. Hang Seng dropped 2%, while the Nikkei, Straits Times and Seoul Composite shed 1% each. In Europe, however, CAC 40 and DAX were up around 0.5-1% each. BSE IT index continued to feel the heat after S&P downgraded US from AAA to AA+. The index ended down 1%.  All the sectoral indices closed in red led by Auto and Metal indices declining by more than two percentage points. The market breadth is negative with 1313 advances as against 1528 declines on BSE.