The benchmark indices have witnessed huge selling pressure for the second day in a row and ended sharply lower. Traders, who had created long positions ahead of the interim budget, have started unwinding those positions since yesterday. A heavy shorts build-up was seen in the rate sensitive, infrastructure, metal, technology and oil & gas stocks, which dragged the Sensex below 9000 mark in the last one hour of trade.
The sell-off in global cues also added some fuel to negative sentiment. Shares from broader indices followed the same trend as well. Among benchmark indices, the Sensex lost roughly 600 points and the Nifty fell more than 175 points in two days.
Heavyweights like Reliance Industries, NTPC, Infosys, ICICI Bank, SBI, ONGC, HDFC, Reliance Communication, SAIL, TCS and HDFC Bank were big contributors in this fall.
The 30-share BSE Sensex has hit an intraday low of 8,994.34, but some short covering in late trade helped it to get back above 9000 mark and closed at 9,035, down 270.45 points or 2.91%. The 50-share NSE Nifty shut shop at 2770.50, down 78 points or 2.74%, after hitting a low of 2757.30.
Nifty February Futures ended with discount of 9.5 points. Nifty 2800 Put shed 24% in open interest while Nifty 2800 call has added about 26% in OI. Among shares, Unitech has seen fresh shorts build up followed by ICICI Bank and Tata Steel. Among momentum players, GVK Power and WWIL have seen shed in open interest.
Global cues were also weak in today's trade. At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets were under pressure. FTSE was trading at 4,075, down 24 points. CAC fell 54 points, to 2,907 and DAX down 80 points, to 4,286.
Among US futures, Dow Jones Futures was trading at 7,663, down 116 points and the Nasdaq Futures was at 1204.75, down 24.5 points.
Asian markets ended with sharp cut. Hang Seng went down 3.79% and Kospi down 4.11%. Shanghai lost 2.93% and Straits Times fell 2.55%. Nikkei slipped 1.35% and Taiwan Weighted down 2.17%.
