By IANS
Mumbai : The Indian equities markets maintained their downward plunge in afternoon trades Friday as data showing a surge in inflation further dampened sentiments of already weak markets.
All the sectoral indices were in the red. The worst hit were metal, realty, banks, power, oil and gas, consumer goods sectors, which were all down over 4 percent.
At 1:14 p.m., the 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange was down by 834.55 points or 5.05 percent at 15,707.153.
The broader 50-share CNX S&P Nifty on the National Stock Exchange was down 230.15 points, or 3.80 percent at 4,734.35.
All the 30 stocks from the Sensex pack were trading in the red. Mid-caps and small-caps were the worst affected as reflected in the extremely weak market breadth.
The top losers from the Sensex pack included Reliance Energy, which went down by 8.29 percent at BSE.
Besides Asian markets, concerns on the political front also weighed on the market after the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Thursday renewed its threat to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government saying that the ruling coalition’s future depended on how it took the call on pursuing the Indo-US nuclear deal.