The benchmark indices retreated on the back of profit booking in telecom, oil & gas and private financial stocks. It was a small correction as compared to gains seen on Monday. But it was a party time for the broader indices, which continued gains for the third consecutive day; BSE Midcap Index was up 6% and Smallcap Index shot up 9%. This upsurge in midcaps and smallcaps strengthened the market breadth to 11:1 on the NSE.

Midcap and smallcap stocks were doing catch up after recent rally in largecap stocks, as local players were very active in midcaps. Local brokerages were asking clients to hold on their midcap positions, as they expect broader markets to relatively outperform.

The 30-share BSE Sensex slipped below the 14,000 mark and touched an intraday low of 13,976.49, before closing the day 241.37 points or 1.69% lower at 14,060.66. The 50-share NSE Nifty dropped below 4300 level and touched a low of 4244.70; it ended at 4270.30, down 1.11% or 48.15 points.

Biggest contributors in today's sell-off were from Bharti Airtel, BHEL, ICICI Bank, HDFC, DLF and Reliance Capital, which plunged 6-7%. Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum, ITC, Reliance Communication, HDFC Bank and Infosys declined 2-3.5%.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Midcap Index was up 265.95 points or 6.03%, to settle at 4,673.77 and the Smallcap Index surged 8.86% or 424.04 points, to 5,208.18.

In the midcap space, Kingfisher Airlines shot up 27.36% and HCC gained 24.06%. Tulip Telecom, Future Capital, Omaxe, Simplex Infra and Parsvnath went up 19-21%.

More than 35 stocks ended over 19% in the smallcap Index. Everonn Systems was up 26.31% and Firstsource Solutions gained 22.81%. Nagarjuna Fertilisers, Bharati Shipyard, Transformers, JBF Industries, Himatsingka Seide, Ruby Mills, Prime Focus, UB Holdings, Indian Hume Pipe, Arshiya Intl, Hercules Hoists, Shriram EPC, Unity Infraprojects and Electrotherm went up 20-21%.

Volumes were lower compared to previous session but remained above Rs 1 lakh crore mark. Total traded turnover reported at Rs 1,07,339.47 crore, which comprised of Rs 28,374.98 crore from NSE cash segment, Rs 70,570.87 crore from NSE F&O and the balance from Rs 8,393.62 crore from BSE cash segment.

Sectoral indices
The BSE Bankex lost 2.45% or 198.83 points, to 7,919.53, as ICICI Bank was down 6.56%. Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank and PNB fell 2-5%. HDFC declined over 7% while SBI gained 1.47%.

Profit booking was seen in oil & gas space as well; Reliance Industries slipped 3.78%. Reliance Petroleum and BPCL declined 2-3%. ONGC was down just 0.24%. Respective Index fell 2.09% or 205.36 points, to 9,607.54. However, IOC and Cairn India gained 2-3.7%.

Selling was also seen in telecom pack; Bharti Airtel tanked 6.06%. Idea Cellular and Reliance Communication fell 2-3.5%.

The BSE IT and FMCG indices closed flat at 2,853.96 and 2,112.10, respectively. In the technology space, Infosys slipped 1.90% while HCL Tech, Patni Computer, Wipro and TCS rose 0.8-4.8%.

However, the BSE Metal Index surged 5.22% or 491.54 points, to 9,907.46, as Tata Steel surged 12.81%. JSL, Hindalco, JSW Steel, Sesa Goa, Jindal Steel and SAIL were up 2.5-8%.

There was huge short covering seen in Tata Steel and Tata Motors, as there were reports that Tata Steel raising Rs 2000 crore and Tata Motors raising Rs 1250 crore to ease debt burden.

Auto Index gained 4.7% or 202.73 points, to close at 4,516.63, as Tata Motors shot up 19.12%. M&M, Ashok Leyland and Maruti Suzuki gained 4.5-8%.

Pharma stocks like Sun Pharma Advanced, Glenmark, Dr Reddys Labs, Ranbaxy Labs, Wockhardt and GSK Pharma went up 2-7.7%. The BSE Healthcare Index was up 1.93% or 63.12 points, to 3,330.60.

In the capital goods space, Punj Lloyd was up 12.9%. ABB gained 7.05% and Siemens rose 5.40%. L&T was up 0.97%. Respective Index rose 1.48% or 166.01 points, to 11,411.90. However, BHEL fell 5.75%.

Power stocks like CESC shot up over 14%. Reliance Power, GVK Power, Torrent Power, GMR Infra, Reliance Infrastructure, Suzlon Energy, NTPC and Tata Power were up 1-6%, which helped the respective index to gain 1.32% or 35.60 points at 2,741.62.

The BSE Realty Index rose 0.38% or 12.67 points, to 3,361.43. Orbit Corporation, Omaxe, Parsvnath, Ansal Properties, Sobha Developer, Peninsula Land, Mahindra Life and Puravankara Projects gained 10-20%. Akruti City, HDIL, Unitech and Indiabulls Real were up 3.4-5%. However, DLF tumbled 7.77%.

Advances sharply outnumbered declines; about 2457 shares advanced while 348 shares declined. Nearly 317 shares remained unchanged.

Global cues
Global markets were quiet in trade today. At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets were trading mixed. The FTSE was down 28 points, to 4,454 and the CAC fell just 5 points, to 3,269 while the DAX gained 10 points at 4,969. The US futures were trading almost flat.

Asian markets ended mixed. Nikkei, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted went up 0.4-0.7%. However, Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng fell 0.4-0.9%.