The benchmark indices took a big knock today due to huge sell-off in heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL). The Bombay High Court (HC) ruled in favour of RNRL (Reliance Natural Resources) in RIL-RNRL gas case. HC asked RIL to supply gas to the RNRL to the tune of 28 mmscmd ((Million Metric Standard Cubic Meter Per Day)  for 17 years at a price of USD 2.34 per mmbtu (million metric British thermal unit).

RIL plunged 7.48% and Reliance Petroleum was down 7.15%, which dragged the BSE Oil & Gas Index 4.51% or 474.08 points lower to close at 10,035.64. Among the others, Cairn India fell 2.31% and ONGC was down just 0.33%. However, the most beneficial ADAG's (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group) RNRL surged 24.11% and its volumes shot up 525% compared to 5-day average. Reliance Power rose 4.3% and Reliance Infrastructure gained 1.4%.

Commenting on the verdict, SP Tulsian of sptulsian.com said that the judgment would lead to Reliance Industries to suffer losses to the tune of Rs 3,600 crore. Tulsian however said he did not expect RNRL to be allowed to trade in the interim period till the Dadri project was created and added that more than RNRL, Reliance Power would benefit. "There would be increased profitability for Reliance Power but that is obviously once the power projects goes on stream."

Selling in capital goods, auto, metal and realty stocks and negative cues from global markets also weighed on the Sensex and the Nifty, which closed below 15000 and 4500 levels.
 
However, buying in FMCG, cement, select financial and power stocks helped the markets to recover to some extent from day's low.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 14,875.52, down 362.42 points or 2.38% and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 2.17% or 99.40 points, to settle at 4,484.

Commenting on the verdict, R Amarnath, ED-Corporate Solutions at Centrum said, "The court judgement and the arithmetic have been well played out in terms of the stock dropping almost Rs 200. But in terms of how all this pans out operationally and in reality over what point of time; whether they further appeal to the Supreme Court, whether the government get into it because of the NTPC issue that's all one needs to watch out for possibly over the next month or two-three months.''

''But this has been the starting point – my sense is that we could end with June being a negative month compared to where we ended May'', he said.

Sectoral indices
All sectoral indices ended in the red barring FMCG. Metal, realty, capital goods and auto were other sectors that pulled the markets down; respective indices fell 2-3.9%.

In the metals space, Sterlite lost 7.61%. SAIL, JSW Steel, Hindustan Zinc, Tata Steel, Hindalco, Jindal Saw and JSL were down 3.5-5.5%.

Among the capital goods stocks, Punj Lloyd, L&T, Siemens, BHEL, Suzlon Energy and ABB declined 1.8-5%. In the power space, GVK Power, Torrent Power, GMR Infra and Tata Power were down 3-7.6% while Power Grid Corp and NTPC ended with marginal gains.

In the realty pack, Indiabulls Real, Orbit Corporation, Puravankara Projects, Akruti City, Sobha Developers, DLF, Omaxe, Parsvnath and HDIL lost 3.5-6%.

Auto stocks like Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, M&M, Hero Honda, Bharat Forge and Maruti Suzuki were down 2-4%. In the telecom pack, Tata Teleservices, Tata Communication, Reliance Communication, MTNL and Bharti Airtel slipped 1.4-4.4%.

In the technology space, Tech Mahindra and Wipro fell 2-3%. Infosys was down 0.44%. However, HCL Tech and TCS were up 1.9-2.3%.

Banking stocks like PNB and Axis Bank gained 1.9-2.6%. SBI was up 0.31% while ICICI Bank was down 0.94% and HDFC Bank was flat.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Midcap Index fell 121.83 points or 2.33%, to 5,113.20 and the Smallcap Index lost 2.14% or 128.90 points, to 5,885.76.

In the midcap space, Dish TV India, India Infoline, Voltas, Motilal Oswal and Kirloskar Brothers declined 8-10%. In the smallcap space, Electrotherm, Ankur Drugs, Everonn Systems and Man Industries lost 8-10%.

Sugar stocks like Bajaj Hindusthan, Balrampur Chini, Bannariamman, Dhampur Sugar, EID Parry, KCP Sugar, Oudh Sugar Mill, Rajshree Sugars, Sakthi Sugars, Shree Renuka, Triveni Engg, Upper Ganges Sugars and Uttam Sugar slipped 2-5%.

The market breadth was negative; about 842 shares advanced while 1968 shares declined on the BSE. Nearly 335 shares remained unchanged.

Volumes declined compared to previous session; total traded turnover stood at Rs 96,944.67 crore as against Rs 1,07,004.36 crore on Friday. This comprised of Rs 20,748.78 crore from the NSE cash segment, Rs 69,109.05 crore from the NSE F&O and the balance Rs 7,086.84 crore from the BSE cash segment.

Global cues
At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets like the FTSE was down 79 points, to 4,362. The CAC fell 59 points, to 3,266 and the DAX lost 114 points, to 4,954.

Among the US futures, the Dow Jones futures fell 91 points, to 8,647 and the Nasdaq futures lost 17 points, to 1,468.50.

Asian markets ended lower barring Shanghai. Taiwan Weighted was down 3.5%. Hang Seng and Straits Times slipped 2-2.55%. Nikkei, Kospi and Jakarta Composite were down 1% each. However, Shanghai gained 1.67%.