Only Hindustan Unilever and Nestl bucked the trend.
Experts tell Ujjval Jauhari that investors need to be careful in picking stocks given high valuations and with markets possibly ignoring potential risks
Unilever CEO Paul Polman appears to have achieved what he set out to do -- partake of India's growth story.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
The fall was led by banking stocks, with IndusInd Bank, Kotak Bank, Federal Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI declining up to 2.36 per cent.
FMCG stocks have underperformed the market, falling 2.2 per cent so far in 2014.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
On the equity volume front, 7.66 lakh shares of the company were traded on BSE and over 91 lakh shares changed hands at NSE during the day.
While demand for hair care products is increasing in both rural and urban markets, urban consumers have proven to be more extravagant, reports T E Narasimhan.
ICICI Bank topped the Sensex gainers' chart, spurting 5.09 per cent, followed by L&T, Bharti Airtel, Vedanta and Tata Motors, rising up to 4.60 per cent.
PI Industries, GCPL, Colgate and HUL have delivered positive returns every year since 2008.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Top losers in the Sensex pack included M&M, SBI, Yes Bank, Asian Paints, HDFC, Tata Steel and L&T, shedding up to 2.55 per cent. The broader NSE Nifty settled 79.80 points, or 0.72 per cent, down at 10,996.10.
The index widened its loss towards the fag-end on emergence of intense selling in heavyweights like ITC, RIL and ICICI Bank. In percentage terms, however, Sun Pharma was the biggest loser with 9.39 per cent drop. Intra-day, the pharma major's shares tanked over 20 per cent.
The country's largest consumer goods company Hindustan Unilever says it has been able to reduce its water use by regular metering, monitoring and controlling of utilities consumption at all its manufacturing sites
ITC was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, tanking 6.97 per cent, followed by L&T, HDFC, SBI, ONGC, ICICI Bank and IndusInd Bank.
The four major Hindi general entertainment channels -- STAR Plus, Sony, Colors and ZEE -- have all launched music and dance reality shows in the 9-pm slot on weekends.
Shutting of stores had not stopped alcohol sales. On the contrary, it had increased black market operations and peddling of illicit hooch, which could cause death/serious injury.
HDFC and HUL are the latest entrants in the club
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Baba Ramdev's brand is pivoting away from franchise outlets and expanding its retail presence through the tried-and-tested channel distribution route of FMCG companies. Arnab Dutta reports.
Among top losers that dragged down key indices were Infosys, TCS, Reliance, SBI, Tata Steel and ITC, falling up to 2.15 per cent.
To stay in the race for the long term, the company has to innovate continuously - something that MNCs and some of the home-grown Indian firms have been doing successfully, says Sangeeta Tanwar.
Gaurav Garg, Head of Research, CapitalVia answers readers' stock market queries.
The 50-share Nifty scaled a high of 10,207.90 intra-day but succumbed to profit-booking to finish at 10,184.15, up 53.50 points
A recovery in rupee, buying by domestic institutional investors, encouraging earnings by select blue-chips and stock specific buying helped the market get back on its feet
Other major laggards were IndusInd Bank, SBI, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Tata Steel and Reliance Industries -- falling as much as 6.30 per cent.
In the Sensex pack, Axis Bank, HCL Tech, M&M, TCS, HDFC, Kotak Bank, PowerGrid, Hero MotoCorp and Vedanta were among the top gainers, rising up to 1.91 per cent. Sun Pharma was the biggest loser, cracking 5.78 per cent.
The companies include Larsen & Toubro, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys, TCS and Sun Pharma
In the Sensex pack, Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, Infosys, ICICI Bank, TCS, SBI, Reliance Industries, ONGC, Axis Bank and NTPC rose up to 2.66 per cent.
The markets have opened marginally higher tracking subdued global cues.
Sector insiders and analysts say this is due to combination of slowing property markets and liquidity issues.
Salaries are performance-linked and FY12 was good on both counts; now, persistent inflation and patchy rains show on rural market.
Losses largely came from the metal index, followed by power, infrastructure, realty, PSU, oil and gas, capital goods, FMCG, healthcare, auto and banking.
Investors will remain cautious ahead of F&O expiry.
The benchmark indices ended on a strong note on Tuesday, amid positive global cues, led by heavyweights such as Infosys, HUL and HDFC. The Nifty closed above its crucial psychological levels of 5,400 up 55 points to close at 5,421 and the Sensex advanced 194 points to close at 17,885.
Mohan will be responsible for aligning of teams, overall strategy in this country and driving Facebook's investments in India
Having delivered the numbers, Nitin Paranjpe talks about his plans to make Hindustan Unilever future-proof.
The market breadth in BSE remained dismal with 1,708 shares declining and 1,084 advancing.
