The benchmark indices saw significant sell-off in today's trade and closed the session sharply lower due to weak global cues, which tanked on the renewed concerns over financial systems. Profit booking was seen in rate sensitives, infrastructure, telecom and oil & gas exploration. The Sensex broke the 11,000 mark during the day while the Nifty closed below 3,400 level.

Among the frontliners, DLF, Sterlite, Tata Steel, HDFC, Reliance Communication, Reliance Infrastructure, Tata Motors and ICICI Bank fell 6-8%. BHEL, Hindalco, HDFC Bank, L&T and SBI slipped 3-4%.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed just above the 11K mark, at 11,001.75, down 370.10 points or 3.25%, after hitting a low of 10,961.76. The 50-share NSE Nifty touched a low of 3351.50, before ending 3.10% or 107.65 points lower at 3362.35.

Local traders were aggressively booking profits ahead of long weekend. High beta names in metals, realty and capital goods saw selling pressure by local players.

Ved Prakash Chaturvedi of Tata Mutual Fund said, "There is a global issue of the epidemic concerns, there is an expiry tomorrow and there is an entire issue of expectations of what companies will deliver in terms of earnings growth. It's a combination of all three; results that have come out have been as per expectation, we are not surprised as far as on the positive side and this addition concern with respect to the flu which is playing on everybody's mind plus some of the negative news flow which we have seen from overseas. All that is playing on market's mind, people are taking some profits ahead of the expiry."     

The broader indices witnessed huge selling pressure and underperformed the benchmark indices; the BSE Midcap Index fell 133.57 points or 3.73%, to settle at 3,450.71 and the Smallcap Index declined 3.45% or 138.82 points, to 3,888.32.

Global cues were weak on fears of the Swine flu and renewed credit concerns. At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets were trading sharply lower. The FTSE 100 was down 88 points, to 4,078. The CAC declined 76 points, to 3,026 and the DAX was down 124 points, to 4,570.

The US futures were trading lower, which pointing towards weak opening of US markets today. The Dow Jones futures fell 108 points, to 7,894 and the Nasdaq Futures slipped 19.25 points, to 1,354.

Asian markets ended on a weak note. Nikkei tumbled 2.67% and Seoul Composite fell 2.95%. Hang Seng and Taiwan Weighted declined 1.9% each. Straits Times was down 0.56% and Shanghai Composite fell 0.16%.

On the sectoral front, BSE Realty, Metal and Bank indices fell 5-5.7%. The Capital Goods Index was down 4% and Power Index fell 3.8%.

Volumes picked up further and were inching towards Rs 1 lakh crore mark, ahead of F&O expiry tomorrow; total traded turnover was at Rs 98,686.56 crore. This included Rs 13,305.91 crore from NSE cash segment, Rs 81,137.88 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 4,242.77 crore from BSE cash segment.

Sectoral indices
The BSE Realty Index underperformed other sectoral indices; tanked 5.7% or 125.56 points, to settle at 2,076.47. HDIL, DLF and Indiabulls Real were down 6-9%. Unitech was down 1.94%.

Metal and banking were other indices, which dragged the benchmark indices lower. Respective Indices declined 401.58 points or 5.66% and 284.84 points or 4.97%, to 6,695.56 and 5,441.75, respectively.

In the metal space, Sterlite, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Hindalco, SAIL, JSL and Jindal Saw fell 3-7.7%. Among banking stocks, PNB, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI slipped 3-9.6%.

Telecom stocks also saw huge selling pressure; Reliance Communication tumbled 7.16%. Tata Teleservices, Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel and Tata Communication declined 2-2.9%.

The BSE Capital Goods Index plunged 4.17% or 336.33 points, to 7,735.21, as BHEL, Punj Lloyd, L&T, Siemens and ABB tanked 2-4%.

Power stocks like Reliance Infrastructure, Suzlon Energy, Torrent Power, GVK Power, Power Grid Corp, GMR Infra and Tata Power fell 3-7%. Respective Index was down 3.78% or 80.40 points, to 2,047.89.

The Oil & Gas Index fell 2.33% or 187.31 points, to 7,858.80, due to fall in oil & gas exploration companies. Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum and ONGC fell 1.9-2.7%. However, IOC, BPCL and HPCL ended higher.

FMCG stocks remained under pressure; Ruchi Soya, United Spirits, United Breweries, ITC, HUL and Tata Tea slipped 2.2-4.8%.
Respective Index tanked 46.41 points or 2.2%, to settle at 2,063.38.

Among the pharma stocks, Glenmark, Wockhardt, Dr Reddys Labs, Sun Pharma Advanced and Cipla fell 2-8.8%. The BSE Healthcare Index slipped 1.8% or 55.60 points, to 3,037.84.

Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland and Bharat Forge slipped 2.4-6.4% in the auto space, Auto Index fell 1.5% or 51.71 points, to close at 3,399.02.

The BSE IT Index was down just 17.76 points or 0.69% at 2,537.84, as Tech Mahindra, Wipro, HCL Tech, TCS and Infosys were losers.

Among the midcap stocks, IVRCL Infrastructure, Indian Bank, Nagarjuna Construction, Aban Offshore and Adlabs Films were down 10-11.4%.

In the smallcap space, Shoppers Stop, UB Holdings, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, MIC Electronics and Fulford fell 9-10%.

The market breadth remained weak due to fall in broader indices; about 898 shares advanced while 2082 shares declined. Nearly 128 shares remained unchanged.

Asian markets were trading marginally lower. Shanghai, Straits Times and Kospi were down 0.6% each. Nikkei, Taiwan and Hang Seng were flat.