Sensex plunges 165 points; IT, realty stocks take big hit

Intra-day, it dipped to three month low of 17,786.13.

Infosys, L&T, RIL, TCS, SBI, ICICI Bank and HDFC contributed more than 100 points to the decline.

Realty major DLF slumped to a 52-week low after posting over 19 per cent dip in Q4 earnings and was the top loser from the Sensex pack, losing 4.04 per cent.

The capital goods index fell 1.53 per cent. It was followed by IT, down 1.52 per cent, on reports that software bellwether Infosys Tech has received a legal notice from US district court over the use of its business visas.

Globally, stocks displayed mixed trend with downward bias on fears that euro-zone debt crisis may spread further.

Stock markets resumed lower amid weak Asian trend and the 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange index, Sensex, touched the lowest level since the Budget day (February 28), when it had logged an intra-trade low of 17.718.88.

It remained in the negative terrain all through and closed at 17,847.24, down 164.73 points or 0.91 per cent.

The broad-based NSE 50 index, Nifty, also dipped 45.90 points or 0.85 per cent to 5,348.95.

"It was a day of large-cap led selling as traders braced for Thursday's F&O expiry and earnings from a few index heavyweights like Tata Steel and Tata Motors," said IIFL Head of Research (India Private Clients) Amar Ambani.

"Weak Asian markets weighed on the sentiment early on, and couldn't recover despite a recovery in the European indices," he added.

Stock markets have been under pressure most of this year, about 12 per cent down so far, due to high inflation, soaring oil prices, rising interest rates and below-expected fourth quarter earnings by key corporates.

In Asia, key indices in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan closed in the red. Hong Kong and Singapore indices, however, closed in the green.

European stocks moved narrow range in afternoon deals.

FIIs, meanwhile, turned net buyers after eight days of sell-off and picked up shares worth Rs 188.16 crore yesterday as per provisional data.

Overall, 25 out of 30 Sensex scrips closed in the red, while others finished in the green.

Reliance Com dropped 2.48 per cent, L&T (2.24 pc), TCS (2.09 pc), SBI (2.06 pc), Infosys Tech (1.76 pc), Tata Power (1.68 pc), Jaipra Asso (1.56 pc), BHEL (1.47 pc), Bajaj Auto (1.46 pc), REL Infra (1.40 pc), Hindalco (1.23 pc), ONGC (1.09 pc), HUL (0.93 pc), Wipro (0.93 pc) and RIL (0.92 pc).

Among other sectoral indices, BSE-Realty tumbled by 1.31 per cent and Oil & Gas by 0.98 per cent, while Consumer Durable was up 1.23 per cent.

The total market breadth at BSE remained negative with 1,649 stocks losing ground, against 1,080 closing with gains. The total turnover improved further to Rs 2,885.74 crore from Rs 2,607.78 crore yesterday.