The market extended losses in last hour of trade Tuesday with the Nifty breaking 8700-mark, dragged by index heavyweights like HDFC, Reliance Industries. However, the key indices trimmed losses towards the end. The 30-share BSE Sensex fell as much as 260 points intraday, before showing recovery to close at 28709.87, down 134.91 points. The 50-share NSE Nifty declined 44.70 points to 8712.05 after hitting an intraday low of 8677.35. Experts feel the market is in consolidation phase as major events are behind. They expect the correction to continue in near term. Andrew Holland of Ambit Capital says there are many factors that can take market below 8500. He expects a tough few months for investors and also foresees a correction in global equities this year. The broader markets followed the same trend too, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices lost 0.3-0.4 percent. Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by a ratio of 1584 to 1261 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, the rupee fell further today, trading at fresh 2-month low of 62.73 a dollar, down 18 paise due to rise in dollar and increased demand for the dollar from importers. Globally, global markets also had a weak session today despite the better than expected Chinese inflation data and positive lead from Wall Street. In Asia, major markets like Nikkei, Hang Seng and Shanghai were down 0.5-1 percent. European markets fell 0.6 percent (at 16 hours IST) on Greek tensions. Back home, HDFC took the big knock among bluechips today, down 3.7 percent. Reliance Industries, HUL, Sun Pharma, Hindalco Industries, Tata Steel and Tata Power were other prominent losers on Sensex, down 1-2 percent. Jindal Steel shed 2.4 percent as sources told CNBC-TV18 that nominated body appointed by government may examine bid process for 3 coal blocks, including Gare Palma IV/2 & 3 (allotted to company). Gare Palma IV/1 and Marki Mangli 3 were other two blocks. Dr Reddy’s Labs fell 0.8 percent on profit booking. A media report quoting unnamed sources says Dr Reddy’s has been in talks to buy Indian unit of Belgium's UCB for USD 135 million. However, telecom stocks saw huge buying interest as spectrum auction has reached last leg while bidding has closed for 900 mhz spectrum. Bharti Airtel was up 7 percent, and Idea Cellular & Reliance Communications jumped 2.5-3 percent as the day on day jump in bid prices for 900 mhz has fallen to 2 percent versus 5 percent earlier, raising hopes of some moderation in bidding. Coal India climbed 4 percent, hoping coal price hikes for non-power consumers. CLSA maintains buy on the stock with a target price of Rs 435 apiece as the brokerage sees a decent possibility of a large price hike for non-power consumers in FY16, which would be a catalyst for the stock. Mahindra & Mahindra was up 1.9 percent followed by Infosys, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, Hero Motocorp with marginal gains. In the broader space, KNR Constructions gained 5 percent on getting international orders worth Rs 515 crore. Monnet Ispat climbed 9 percent as the company is looking to sell stake in its power and sponge business. Additionally the company’s power subsidiary won the Utkal C block for a negative bid price of Rs 770 per tonne.

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