Markets plunge 2%; Realty, oil stocks weigh

Volatile markets slumped in late noon trades to end near the day's low with losses of 2% in a single trading session. Selling pressure was seen in realty and oil stocks.

The Sensex, after opening with a positive gap, had dropped into red as heavyweight, RIL, declined. A probable rate hike in China had been the cause of worry for investors.

The index, thereafter, started to recover. However, selling pressure aggrevated in the last one hour of trades owing to the weekend factor.

The index dropped sharply to touch a low of 19,504. The Sensex ended finally at 19,585 -- down 345 points.

Nifty ended at 5,890 -- down 109 points.

Markets have been trading with a negative bias for the past couple of session. Yesterday the Nifty fell in morning trades. The index, helped by a late recovery, had ended up 10 points at 5,999.

"We believe this is part of the normal correction process and the medium-to-long term uptrend remains intact. We have always maintained that any knee-jerk short-term correction in markets as response to global events should be looked at as an opportunity to accumulate quality stocks", says Gaurav Dua, Head-Research, Sharekhan.

BSE mid and small cap indices also slipped. The mid-cap index underperformed and was down 1%.

Asian markets ended in the green. Seoul Composite added 0.7% to 1,940. Shanghai Composite advanced 1%. Jakarta was up 1% at 3,725.

European markets, however, are weak owing to continued worries about Ireland's debt. The FTSE is down 0.5%, while CAC is down 0.3% in trades.