Sensex ends below 12k; realty, banks, metal, FMCG, IT drag

The benchmark indices witnessed selling pressure in the second half, after seeing consolidation for one and half sessions and ended lower. There was a news that large hedge fund offloaded exposure in major stocks, after 2 pm.
The Sensex closed below the 12,000 mark while the Nifty slipped below the 3700 level. The Nifty tested the 3700 mark today, for the first time since October 7, 2008. Shares of financials, technology, auto, capital goods, FMCG, metal, oil marketing and realty companies saw selling pressure.
The 50-share NSE Nifty shut shop at 3625.05, down 1.01% or 36.85 points, after shedding 92 points from day's high of 3717.05. The 30-share BSE Sensex closed 178.33 points or 1.47% lower at 11,952.75, after losing 319.35 points from day's high of 12,272.10.
Rajat K Bose of rajatkbose.com said, "Unless the Nifty falls below 3,590 it would be a bit too premature to take a negative call on the market. I would advice keeping positions light and do not be too adventurous to actually buy on this dip immediately as number of stocks have actually reached their major resistance levels but don’t be gung-ho on the short side either."
Deven Choksey of KR Choksey Securities said, "At every level, the market is witnessing the profit booking which is good fundamentally. Maybe after the stress test results are out for the banks in the US tomorrow, you could see the resumption of the trend once again on Friday and we can continue with that particular uptrend till the middle of the next week when one can probably expect the Nifty to go at around 3,760 and 3,820 thereafter. At that level you should see major amount of profit booking coming in and that is also going to be a time synchronizing well with the election result in that week. So maybe we are going to see that kind of a trend emerging hereafter."
Among the frontliners, Jaiprakash Associates, HDFC, DLF, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Sterlite Industries and Unitech were down 4.7-6.4%. On the sectoral front, the BSE Realty Index slipped 3.74%. Bank, Metal and FMCG indices were down 2-3%. Capital Goods, IT and Auto indices fell 0.8-1.5%.
The broader indices also witnessed selling pressure - the BSE Midcap Index declined 43.03 points or 1.16%, to 3,675.84 and the Smallcap Index fell 9.57 points or 0.23%, to settle at 4,153.01.