Sensex ends 164 pts lower; oil & gas, telecom, metals drag

The benchmark Nifty slipped into the red in the last one hour of trade and closed below an important psychological level of 5000 on the back of fall in European markets. The markets had opened marginally higher and were consolidating in the first half of trade after Monday's sharp sell-off.

European markets like France's CAC 40, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were down 1.2-1.5% for the third consecutive day on rising European debt crisis. The IBEX Index (Spain) was down 1.5% and Greek's Athex Composite was down 1.3%. Investors were still worried about recovery in European economies.

Power companies' shares in Germany' declined more than 3% as government announced that they will impose a tax on nuclear fuel, which will increase government revenues. EON AG and RWE AG dropped over 3%.

Telecom, metal, realty, oil & gas, technology, auto, select financials and power companies' shares witnessed selling pressure, which dragged the Sensex down by more than 150 points. However, HDFC, ITC, Tata Power, Axis Bank, Siemens, BHEL, NTPC, Cipla, HUL and PNB were the only gainers.

Indices slipped for the second consecutive day. The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 16,617.10, down 163.97 points or 0.98% and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 46.90 points or 0.93% to settle at 4,987.10. The Nifty June futures ended at 22 points discount, as per provisional data.

All the sectoral indices ended in the red barring FMCG. The BSE Metal and Realty indices tumbled 2-2.5%.

Telecom companies' shares witnessed profit booking as they rallied in the last week. Bharti Airtel, which took control of Zain Assets today, lost 3.7%. Reliance Communications was down 5% and Idea Cellular was down 2%.

Hindalco was the top loser on the Nifty; tanked 6%. The company said it was looking to buy copper mines overseas. Among the other metal stocks, SAIL, Tata Steel and Sterlite Industries declined 2% each. Jindal Steel was down just 0.3%.

ONGC, Reliance Industries and Cairn India from oil & gas space lost 1% each. Oil marketing companies' shares like BPCL, HPCL and IOC went down 3.5%, 2.5% and 1.76%, respectively. Empowered Group of Ministers deferred decision on fuel pricing in Monday's meeting.

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