Markets down on oil woes

Mumbai: In all it is highly volatile session. The sell-off is continued for the second consecutive day on Thursday as the weak Asian cues and fall in crude prices down the investor sentiment however Europe recovery helps the equities to limit later part of the session.

Analysts say that the global weakness continued to bring heavy pressure on the markets raising the negative sentiments over the markets. Investors may utilise the opportunity to pick quality stock. Sensex closed below 24,000-mark down 100 points at 23,962, Nifty ends by 32 points at 7,276.

While the broader markets fared mixed outcome with midcap index down by 0.3 per cent and smallcap gaining 0.5 per cent. On sectoral front, bank index closed higher at 1.3 per cent, while pharma down over 2 per cent followed by auto index down 1.9 per cent.

Bank pack firmly traded with Axis bank gaining higher by 5.2 per cent and others followed with SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank closed between 0.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent.

On the other hand, RIL and ONGC fell up to 3 per cent as the crude prices tumbled with Cairn India and OIL slipped between 1 per cent 2 per cent.

The gainers: Axis Bank, up 5.21 per cent at Rs 408.90; Wipro, up 1.58 per cent at Rs 550.70, Infosys, up 1.32 per cent at Rs 1,136.50, State Bank of India (SBI), up 1.24 per cent at Rs 175.85; and Tata Steel, up 1.23 per cent at Rs 234.55.

The losers: Maruti Suzuki, down 4.11 per cent at Rs 3,892.10; Dr Reddy's Lab, down 3.86 per cent at Rs 2,757.55; Tata Motors, down 3.70 per cent at Rs 329.40; Coal India, down 3.24 per cent at Rs 288.30; and Sun Pharma, down 2.59 per cent at Rs 773.25