With the mood staying a bit bearish, several stocks from across various sectors continue to languish in the red and the key indices Sensex and the Nifty50 look headed for their third successive close in negative territory.
A weak trend in global markets and concerns over tensions across the Line of Control where the Indian army conducted a few artillery raids yesterday, weigh on sentiment.
The Sensex is down 74 points or 0.23% at 30,291.25, off the day's low of 30,247.60. The Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange is down 34.95 points or 0.4% at 3351.50.
Metal, pharma, bank and realty stocks are down sharply. Mirroring the sell-off in these sectors, the sectoral indices are down 2% - 2.4%.
Among metal stocks, APL Apollo Tubes is down 4.7%, SAIL, NMDC, Vedanta, Hindustan Zinc, Welcorp and MOIL are down 3% - 3.7%. is down 3.3%. Hindalco, JSW Steel, Coal India, Nalco, Orissa Minerals and Tata Steel are lower by 1% - 2.5%.
PSU bank stocks IDBI Bank (down 6%), Allahabad Bank (down 4.4%), Oriental Bank of Commerce (down 4.1%) and Andhra Bank (down 4%) have declined sharply. Union Bank of India, Bank of India, Syndicate Bank and Bank of Baroda are down 3% - 3.7%. State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank are down 1% - 1.7%.
Among the stocks in the pharma index, Aurobindo Pharma, Divi's Laboratories, Cipla, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Piramal Enterprises, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries are down 2% - 3.1%. Lupin and Glaxo are down 1.7% and 1.3%, respectively. Cadila Healthcare, which is bucking the trend, is up 0.6%.
