Financials led the losses in the markets for the second consecutive day. ICICI Bank, HDFC, HDFC Bank and SBI alone accounted for over 50% of the day's losses on the BSE benchmark index -- the Sensex. While the Sensex shed 197 points at a close of 20,301, these four financial majors accounted for a loss of 113 points.
The NSE Nifty was down 66 points at 6,080. .In the broader markets, the midcaps and the smallcaps indexes were also down 1% each.
Taking cues from Asian and US markets, our markets opened in red. Among rate sensitive -- banking and realty exhibited weak movement from the word go itself.
The metal pack too faced selling pressure owing to fall a overnight in fall in base metal prices.
Accentuated selling in mid-noon trades, saw the Sensex tumble to a low of 20,245.
While select metal stocks recovered partially towards the close. The Bankex, auto and realty indices ended with losses of around 2% each.
Elsewhere in Asia, Taiwan Weighted dropped nearly 2% while Shanghai Composite, Nikkei and Seoul Composite lost between 0.1% and 0.5%.
On the other hand, Hang Seng, Jakarta Composite, KLSE Composite and Straits Times gained 0.2%-0.8%.
In tune with the negative sentiments in the international market, the Europeean indices opened in the negative.
CAC and DAX are down nearly 1% and FTSE has shed 0.8%.
