The benchmark indices saw huge correction today on the back of unwinding of positions by traders in the second half of the trade. The sharp correction in the heavyweights pulled the Nifty below the 4350 level and the Sensex below the 14500 mark. One percent fall in European markets also weighed on the markets.

A steep crack was seen in realty, metal, capital goods, oil & gas and power stocks; respective indices were down 3.3-6%. Stock futures shed over four crore shares in the open interest.

The 30-share Sensex touched an intraday low of 14,447.02, before closing at 14,522.84, down 435.07 points or 2.91%. The 50-share NSE Nifty shed 161.65 points or 3.58%, to settle at 4356.15, after seeing a day's low of 4332.80.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Midcap Index fell 205.09 points or 3.92%, to 5,021.07 and the Smallcap Index lost 3.74% or 224.82 points, to 5,786.54.

Anu Jain, Vice President - IIFL Private Wealth Management of India Infoline said 4250 on the Nifty was possible but as of now it was still in the trading range. She further said there was no reason to panic much.

Sectoral indices
All sectoral indices closed in the red. Not a single stock ended in the green among the Nifty 50 and Sensex 30 stocks. BSE Realty and Metal indices lost 5.6-5.9%. Oil & Gas, Capital Goods and Power indices declined 3.3-4.3%. Auto, Bank, TECk, FMCG, IT and Healthcare indices fell 1.66-2.5%.

In the realty space, Indiabulls Real, HDIL, DLF and Unitech were down 5.6-7.4%. Orbit Corporation, Parsvnath, Puravankara Projects and Akruti City lost close to 5% each.

Among the metal stocks, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Sesa Goa, JSL, Hindalco, Hindustan Zinc, Sterlite, Jindal Steel (entered into the Nifty 50) and SAIL fell 4.8-7.5%.

In the oil & gas pack, ONGC and HPCL slipped over 5%. Reliance Petroleum and Reliance Industries lost 4% each. Cairn India, BPCL and IOC declined 1.7-2.5%.

Capital Goods stocks like Suzlon Energy, Punj Lloyd, Siemens, L&T, ABB and BHEL fell 2-6%. In the power pack, Areva T&D, Reliance Power, Torrent Power, GMR Infra, NTPC and GVK Power were down 4-6.6%.

In the banking space, Axis Bank, SBI, PNB, Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank slipped 1.5-4.9%. Among the auto stocks, Apollo Tyres and Tata Motors were down 7.4-8.7%. Bharat Forge, M&M, Ashok Leyland, Maruti Suzuki and Hero Honda fell 1.2-3.7%.

In the technology segment, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Wipro and TCS lost 2.8-6.5%. Infosys was down 0.79%. In the FMCG space, Ruchi Soya, United Spirits, United Breweries and Godrej Consumer, Marico, Dabur India, ITC and Tata Tea were down 2.5-9%.

Telecom stocks like Idea Cellular and Reliance Communication fell 6.77% and 5.92%, respectively.  MTNL, Tata Communication and Tata Teleservices slipped 2-5.3%. Bharti Airtel was down 0.69%.

Pharma stocks like Wockhardt tanked 8.38%, as the Apollo Hospitals dropped plans to buy Wockhardt Hospitals. Biocon, Sun Pharma Advanced, Glenmark, Ranbaxy Labs, Sun Pharma, Matrix Lab and Cipla declined 1-7.6%.

In the midcap space, HCC, Redington, Lanco Infratech, Bannariamman and Jet Airways lost 9-10%. In the smallcap space, Balaji Distilleries, S Kumars Nationwide, Usha Martin, Atul and Shree Precoated were down 9-11%.

The market breadth was negative due to fall in the broader indices; about 736 shares advanced while 2058 shares declined on the BSE. Nearly 352 shares remained unchanged.

Volumes ended over the Rs 1 lakh crore mark. Total traded turnover stood at Rs 1,07,365.32 crore. This included Rs 20,953.96 crore from the NSE cash segment, Rs 79,470.14 crore from the NSE F&O and the balance Rs 6,941.22 crore from the BSE cash segment.

Global cues
At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets were trading lower. The FTSE fell 44 points, to 4,283. The CAC lost 42 points, to 3,171 and the DAX lost 58 points, to 4,832.

Among the US futures, the Dow Jones futures declined just 17 points, to 8,497 and the Nasdaq futures were flat in trade.

Asian markets ended mixed. Nikkei was up 0.9% and Shanghai Composite gained 1.23%. However, Hang Seng, Jakarta Composite, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted fell 0.27%-0.73%.