There were expectations that the government, through the interim Budget, would come out with some incentives for some ailing sectors. However, Pranab Mukherjee refrained from announcing any major sops for the industry, and understandably so, as it was only a Vote on Account and not a full-fledged Budget. Stockometer As disappointed investors opted for the sell button, stocks cutting across sectors embarked on a long trip down South this afternoon and posted big losses. Weak global markets also hurt the sentiment to a notable extent. Even realty stocks, which had opened on a bright note in anticipation of some incentives for the ailing sector, went tumbling down on selling pressure. Auto stocks too changed track after a positive start and ended the session on a weak note. The Sensex, which opened at 9637.04 - it remained its high for the session - and plunged to a low of 9279.10 in afternoon trade, ended the day at 9305.45 with a huge loss of 329.29 points or 3.42%. The Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange settled at 2848.50, down 99.85 points or 3.39% from its previous closing mark. The Nifty touched a low of 2839.10 today. Top gainers FMCG heavyweight ITC (up 0.75% to Rs 180.40) was the lone gainer in the Sensex pack today. Nifty stock Hero Honda ended with a small gain of around a quarter per cent. Worst losers Shares from realty, banking, capital goods, metal and oil sectors were among the prominent losers. Mirroring their fall, the respective sectoral indices drifted lower by 4.2% - 4.75% today. Power, PSU, information technology, telecom, pharma and consumer durables stocks too ended with sharp losses. Select FMCG stocks bucked the trend and posted modest gains. After a fairly decent display this morning, midcap and smallcap stocks tumbled in afternoon trade. The Midcap index went down by 2.93% while the smallcap barometer, faring slightly better, posted a loss of 2.1%. Jaiprakash Associates went down by 7.85%. Reliance Infrastructure lost 6.35%. ICICI Bank, Reliance Communications, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, Larsen & Toubro, State Bank of India, Sterlite Industries and BHEL lost 4.4% - 6%. Wipro, Ranbaxy Laboratories, HDFC Bank, Hindalco, DLF, HDFC, ACC, NTPC, Infosys Technologies, Tata Power, ONGC, Bharti Airtel and Mahindra & Mahindra closed lower by 2% - 4%. Grasim Industries, Hindustan Unilever, Maruti Suzuki, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Tata Motors and Tata Consultancy Services also closed with sharp losses today. Reliance Capital lost as much as 8%. Nalco slipped by 6.2%. ABB, Siemens, Reliance Power, Unitech, Reliance Petroleum, Idea Cellular, Power Grid Corporation, Suzlon Energy, SAIL, Punjab National Bank, Tata Communications, Ambuja Cements, Cairn India and HCL Technologies lost 3% - 5.5%. BPCL, GAIL India, Zee Entertainment and Cipla also ended with sharp losses. India Bulls Real Estate, Piramal Healthcare, Century Textiles, JSW Steel, Pantaloon Retail, Balrampur Chini, IVRCL Infrastructure, Lanco Infratech, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers, Tulip Telecom, Jindal Steel, Renuka Sugars, Jindal Steel, GVK Power, Gujarat NRE Coke, Welspun Gujarat and Chambal Fertilizers & Chemicals were some of the prominent losers today. As selling was widespread, the market breadth turned extremely weak in afternoon trade. When trade ended, out of 2482 stocks seen in action on BSE, only 776 stocks were up in the positive territory. 1598 stocks posted losses and 108 stocks ended flat.

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