Sensex drops for 3rd straight day; oil mkting outperform

The Sensex continued its downtrend for the third consecutive session and ended lower. Capital goods, realty, private banking and select power stocks dragged the markets down. Heavyweights Reliance Industries, Bharti, ONGC and ITC also added some pressure.

However, oil marketing companies outperformed the other largecaps. Buying in select pharma and technology shares along with HUL, Hero Honda and Reliance Communication (shot up 5%) capped the losses.

Overall, it was a consolidation day, after the Nifty retracing at 4700 in last two days. The 50-share NSE Nifty fell 0.37% or 17 points, to settle at 4608.35, after witnessing a swing of 74 points between a day's high/low of 4650.45 and 4576.60. The 30-share BSE Sensex saw a swing of 235 points between an intraday high of 15,628.10 and low of 15,392.68, before closing at 15,467.46, down 0.54% or 83.73 points.

The broader indices also slipped in line with the benchmark indices, down 0.3-0.7%. The markets fell on the back of weak global cues. At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets were down 0.5%. Asian markets ended weak barring Shanghai. Nikkei lost 2.4%. Hang Seng & Jakarta were down 1.8% each. Straits Times and Kospi declined 0.6-1%. However, Shanghai gained 1.2%. The US markets had tumbled 2% each on Tuesday on the back of likely another bank default.

Deven Choksey of KR Choksey Securities said,"One of the main issue that is driving down the market whenever it tries to go up, is the threat of dollar appreciating against rupee and the rupee depreciating below 49 is making some people nervous that it's not a good time to bring money into the market. And that is one of the reasons for which at higher level we are seeing the kind of offloading into the market."

He said the Nifty may range between 4,550 and 4,750 and only when it breaks above this level probably the markets would see further upside.