The Sensex shed 118 points to close at 18,178. The Nifty also ended lower at 5,437 down 32 points following a drop in global stocks from the recent 30-month highs as the Libyan political turmoil sent oil prices soaring to 2 1/2 year highs, and raising concerns of a disturbance in the global economic recovery.

The Sensex, which opened on a negative note following weak global cues and an ongoing strife at Libya, recovered slightly soon after to enter the green in morning trades. Since late morning, the bourses saw range-bound trading, but a little into the late session, the markets began slipping to eventually close negatively. The index had touched a high of 18,377 in late morning deals, and it slipped 227 points to the day’s low of 18,150.

Sensex gainers were led by ADAG stock Reliance Infra up by a substantial 12% at Rs 698 after Anil Ambani met Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan in relation to the MSRDC’s plan to construct a coastal road to connect prime South Mumbai locations. Other major gainers were Hero Honda at Rs 1,498 up 8% and another ADAG stock Reliance Communications at Rs 97 up 1.5%.

Major losers were SBI at Rs 2,622 down nearly 4%, DLF at Rs 220 down 3.3% and Tata Power at Rs 1,203 down nearly 3%.

A weak closing in the US markets, with Wall Street suffering its worst day since August, dampened investor sentiment across the globe, due to rising crude prices, which could stoke inflation and add to an already volatile market scenario, due to a crunch in oil supply from Libya, where the government declared a ‘force majeure’ on exports of oil products. Oil prices rose nearly 6% due to the civil unrest in the country.

The broader markets also registered a negative closing, with the Mid-cap index at 6,559 down nearly 1%, and the Small-cap at 8,036 down marginally by 0.3%.

Oil exploration major Reliance Industries pushed up the Oil & Gas index for the second straight day, with the index closing at 9,669 up 0.5%. RIL was at Rs 996 up 1% after the Mukesh-Ambani led firm signed a 50-50 joint venture with global energy heavyweight British Petroleum, while Gail India at Rs 444 and Oil India at Rs 1,238 were both up marginally by 0.2%.

After three days of hammering, the Auto index saw some respite on the back of bargain hunting in the sector. The index was up 0.5% at 8,488.

All the other sectoral indices eneded negatively, pulled down by selling pressure seen in the benchmark and the broader markets.

The BSE Bankex was the top sectoral loser, as the Libyan crisis heightened the possibility of rising inflation, which could, in turn, prompt the RBI to further hike interest rates in its March 7 policy review. Another such hike in rates could trigger margin pressures on banks. The index saw a lot pf selling today, to end at 12,096 down nearly 2%.

Negative US markets saw a dampening effect on IT stocks, as the Nasdaq dropped nearly 3% due to the Libyan crisis; the index slumped 1% at 6,299. Losers in this space were MphasiS at Rs 657 down 3%, Infosys at Rs 3,082 and bellweather Wipro at Rs 436 both down 2%.

Major Asian indices ended negatively today; Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended down 1% at 10,579, while the Hang Seng at 22,910 and the Seoul Composite at 1,962 slipped 0.4% each.

The Taiwan Weighted lost nearly 2% at 8,529, the Straits TImes shed 0.6% at 3,002, and the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.3% at 2,863.

In Europe, markets were trading in the red. The FTSE 100 was down nearly a per cent at 5,961, the DAX was quoting at 7,288 down 0.4%, while the CAC 40 was marginally in the red at 4,045.

Source: Business Standard

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