Nifty closes below 5000 on weak global cues; realty dips 4 percent

The Sensex witnessed huge selling pressure in the last couple of hours especially after European markets opening and closed the session below the 17,000 mark. The sell-off in realty, capital goods, banking, power, auto and metal stocks pushed the Nifty below the 5,000 mark on closing basis.

The broader indices underperformed the benchmark indices and slipped around 2%. However, Bharti Airtel, ITC, HUL, Cairn, Reliance Communication, M&M and HCL Tech bucked the trend and capped the losses to some extent.

Negative global cues weighed on the markets throughout the session. European markets were down 1.5% each and the US index futures declined 0.3% each, at the time of closing of Indian equities. Fall in banking stocks in the US on Wednesday impacted the same stocks in European markets. Asian markets ended lower; Kospi and Taiwan Weighted fell 1.2-1.4%. Shanghai, Hang Seng, Nikkei and Straits Times slipped 0.4-0.6%. Jakarta Composite lost 1.8%.

The equity benchmarks continued their downtrend for the third consecutive day. The 30-share BSE Sensex touched an intraday low of 16,721.26, before closing at 16,789.74, down 219.43 points or 1.29%. The 50-share NSE Nifty was down 75 points or 1.48%, to settle at 4988.60; it touched a day's low of 4968.45.

Heavyweight L&T reported Q2 numbers today, which disappointed the street. Its Q2 net profit jumped 26% to Rs 580 crore and net sales went up 2.4% to Rs 7,866 crore while the street expected net sales at Rs 8,951.2 crore and net profit at Rs 584.5 crore. The stock lost 3.8%.

YM Deosthalee, Chief Financial Officer of L&T said the subdued growth was on the back of delay in clearances for infrastructure projects and lower offtake of industrial products and machinery. He expected the company to maintain 30% overall EBITDA margins.