The Sensex wrapped the day on an unpleasant note, slipping below the psychological 17,000 mark weighed by banking, oil & gas, consumer durables and realty stocks, which dragged the index down over 300 points.  After a positive start with a gain of 0.10 points, at 17,199.05 on Thursday, it soon fell into the red and continued to trade in red for the entire day . The index plunged further on agressive selling seen across the board, touching a low of 16,808.87.  

BSE Midcap and Smallcap index dropped 1.45% and 0.98% respectively.

European stocks declined on speculation an eight-month equities rally may have outpaced the prospects for earnings. UK`s benchmark index FTSE 100 fell 99.84 points, or 1.86%, to trade at 5,264.97. French benchmark index CAC 40 gained 24.54 points or 0.65% to trade at 3,809.16. Germany`s benchmark index DAX decreased 116.30 points or 2.04% to trade at 5,684.16. (4.30 pm)

Asian stocks fell, led by banks and Japanese automakers, amid capital-raising concerns and as the dollar slumped to a 14-year low against the yen. Bank of China lost almost 3% in Hong Kong. Asahi Glass slumped almost 8% on plans to sell convertible bonds. Honda Motor lost more than 1% on concern the stronger yen will hurt the value of US revenue.

Japanese benchmark index Nikkei 225 fell 58.40 points, or 0.62%, to end at 9,383.24. Hong Kong`s Hang Seng is declined 401.39 points, or 1.78%, to end at 22,210.41. China`s Shanghai Composite decreased 119.18 points, or 3.62% to end at 3,170.98.

The Sensex ended the day with a loss of 344.02 points, or 2.00% at 16,854.93 after touching a high of 17,202.51 and a low of 16,808.87. The broad-based NSE Nifty fell 102.60 points, or 2.01% at 5,005.55 after hitting a high of 5,116.45 and a low of 4,986.05.

Markets may consolidate by December. Nifty may trade within the range of 5,000-5,180 levels, said Nirmal Jain, India Infoline while commenting on the outlook. 

Major gainers in the 30-share index were Hindustan Unilever (0.81%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (0.78%), ACC (0.72%), and Hero Honda Motors (0.61%).

On the other hand, ICICI Bank (3.74%), Tata Steel (3.34%), Mahindra & Mahindra (3.10%), State Bank Of India (3.01%), and Reliance Capital (2.97%) were the major losers in the Sensex. Reliance went ex-bonus today, which announced one bonus share for one equity share held. The stock was down over 1%.

Overall market breadth was sharply negative. Out of the total 2,817 stocks traded at BSE, 864 advanced, 1,877 declined while 76 remained unchanged.

All sectoral indices settled negative. BSE Bankex dropped 2.64%, Oil & Gas lost 2.3%, Consumer Durables declined 2.24%, Realty went down 2.11% and IT dropped 1.97%.

Wholesale prices index (WPI) inflation for `primary articles` rose by 1.2% due to higher prices of food and non-food articles.

The annual rate of inflation for this group stood at 11.04% for the week Nov. 14, 2009 as compared to 9.94% for the previous week. It was at 12.66% during the corresponding week of the previous year.

The index for `food articles` group rose by 1.6% due to higher prices of urad and poultry chicken (15% each), eggs (8%), moong (6%), arhar (5%), fruits & vegetables (3%) and milk and wheat (1%each). However, the prices of barley (2%) declined.