Traders looked more nervous after looking at the options data. The Nifty February 5100 put saw huge addition in open interest - about 33% - with the feeling that there would more downside going ahead.
Abhijit Chakraborty, Senior VP - Institutional Equity, Fortune Financial sees the Nifty slipping to 5,150-5,200 and the Sensex falling to about 17,500. “I think there is downside in the market. Fundamentally, I would say the market should bottom out somewhere around 13.5-14 times its FY12 estimated earnings. So, that way on the Nifty, we are looking at anything between 5,150-5,200 levels and about 17,500 on Sensex. At those levels, it would be an attractive buying opportunity for the market as a whole,” he adds.
Arjuna Mahendran, managing director, head investment strategy-Asia at HSBC Private Bank feels that investors are a bit nervous about emerging market companies and their earnings profile because of these cost pressures from wages, from interest rates and also from raw material prices. "Those pressures are not affecting companies in the West and that’s why the US stock market for instance is going gangbuster right now," he said.
Oil & gas, financial, auto, infrastructure, metal and Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group companies' shares were the prominent sectors which took huge beating on exchanges today. However, Bajaj Auto, Infosys, Tata Power, Hindalco, Siemens, Cipla and BPCL were only gainers on Nifty.
The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 17,775, down 261 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 83 points to 5,312, after hitting intraday lows of 17,742.18 and 5,303.40. The broader indices saw more sell-off as compared to benchmarks - the BSE Midcap Index was down 2.4% and Smallcap down 3.2%.
Devesh Kumar, Fortune Financial says that the market should bottom out at around 17,000 levels. “We feel that this quarter the market will find its bottom and recovery will be there,” he adds.
Heavyweight ONGC completely smashed out today with a loss of more than 5.5%. The stock was adjusted for split from Rs 10 to Rs 5 and bonus in the ratio of 1:1 today. Reliance Industries too was on sellers' radar - down 1.5%.
M&M and Kotak Mahindra Bank were top losers on Nifty with 6% fall. ICICI Bank and Axis Bank tanked 3%; HDFC Bank and SBI were down 1-2%.
NTPC and L&T from infrastructure space lost 2-3%; Jaiprakash Associates plummeted over 5%. Tata Motors and Hero Honda from auto pack were down 3% & 5%, respectively. Maruti was down just 1% while Bajaj Auto was the leading gainer with 2% gain.
Tata Steel, Jindal Steel, Sterlite Industries and SAIL from metal segment lost 1-3%. Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group companies' shares like Reliance Communications, Reliance Power, Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Capital tumbled 3-4.5%.
Sun Pharma, Ranbaxy Labs and Dr Reddy's Labs from healthcare space slipped 2-3% whereas Cipal went up 0.7%. DLF from realty space went down 1.5%.
In midcap space, Nava Bharat Ventures, Fortis Health, Prestige Estate, Carborundum and Ipca Labs gained 3-7.5%.
Hospital chain Fortis Healthcare has reported consolidated net profit of Rs 34.5 crore for the quarter ended December 2010, up 59% as compared to Rs 21.7 crore in same period the previous year. Consolidated revenues went up by 58% to Rs 367 crore from Rs 232.5 crore (YoY).
However, Den Networks crashed 20%. IRB Infra, Punj Lloyd, BEML and Hathway Cable were down 11-12%.
Punj Lloyd has reported consolidated revenues of Rs 2,119 crore for the quarter ended December 2010, down 27.4% as compared to Rs 2918 crore in same period the previous year. It has posted a net loss of Rs 62 crore versus net profit of Rs 12 crore, (YoY).
In smallcap space, Graviss Hosp, Symphony, Gokul Refoils, Kiri Dyes Chemical and Asian Hotel (W) rallied 4-7%.
However, Dion Global, Everonn Education, Globus Spirits, Texmaco and Hind Dorr-Oliver lost 11-15%.
About 519 shares advanced as against 2314 shares declined on Bombay Stock Exchange.