By IANS,
Mumbai : Indian equity markets ended the day in the red and touched a new low on the back of heavy selling in banking, realty and select metal stocks.
The markets started on a firm note and remained positive till early afternoon. But there was heavy sell-off in blue chips in the last hour of trading and the markets gave up all their gains.
The 30-share benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the Sensex, which opened at 12,740.78 points, touched a low of 12,514.02 before closing at 12,575.80. It went down by 100.39 points or 0.79 percent compared to its closing figure Tuesday.
The S&P CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange, which opened at 3,861.55 points, closed at 3,816.70. It went down by 44.40 points or 1.15 percent from its previous close.
The BSE Midcap index, which closed at 5,088.28 points, went down by 75.23 points or 1.46 percent.
The BSE Smallcap index, which closed at 6,324.45 points, went down by 106.45 points or 1.66 percent.
The market breadth was negative. On BSE, 810 shares advanced, 1,803 declined and 79 maintained status quo.
The gainers of the day were Ranbaxy Labs at Rs.470.70 up 15.02 percent, Bharti Airtel at Rs.730.35 up 2.87 percent and ONGC at Rs.866.30 up 2.52 percent.
The top losers of the day included DLF at Rs.393.95 down 7.73 percent, Jaiprakash Associate at Rs.136.50 down 6.09 percent and Mahindra and Mahindra at Rs.493.65 down 5.42 percent.