Indian equities dropped on Wednesday erasing earlier gains.The Sensex after initial gains slipped into the negative terrain, touching a low of 15,947.59 on the back of profit booking seen in index heavyweights. Banking, capital goods and power stocks declined, while metal, realty and consumer durables gained. At 9.50 a.m, the Sensex was trading down 70.35 points or 0.44% at 15,971.83 with 22 components falling. Meanwhile, the Nifty was trading lower by 18.05 points or 0.38% at 4,774.60 with 32 components falling.

The 30-share benchmark index, BSE Sensex opened flat at 16,042.18, while the broad based NSE Nifty started with a fall of 32.10 points or 0.67%, at 4,760.55.

Sensex Movers

Reliance Industries contributed fall of 10.98 points in the Sensex. It was followed by ICICI Bank (10.12 points), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (7.21 points), ITC (6.63 points) and Larsen & Toubro (6.51 points).

However, Tata Steel contributed rise of 3.76 points in the Sensex. It was followed by Jaiprakash Associates (3.11 points), Hindalco Industries (2.44 points), DLF (0.69 points) and ACC (0.56 points).

Biggest gainers in the 30-share index were Jaiprakash Associates (1.57%), Hindalco Industries (0.97%), Tata Steel (0.82%), ACC (0.48%), DLF (0.39%), and Hero Honda Motors (0.25%).

On the other hand, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (1.46%), Hindustan Unilever (1.20%), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (1.16%), Tata Power Company (1.06%), Bharat Heavy Electricals (1.02%), and Bharti Airtel (1.02%) were the major losers in the Sensex.

Mid & Small-cap Space

The BSE Mid and small caps outperformed their larger counterparts gaining 0.42% and 0.56% respectively.

The major gainers in the BSE Midcap were A I A Engineering (0.68%), Aban Offshore (0.53%), Alstom Projects India (0.15%), Core Projects and Technologies (0.02%) and Reliance MediaWorks (0.02%).

The major gainers in the BSE Smallcap were Action Construction Equipment (1.31%), Aarti Industries (1.12%), Provogue (India) (1.08%), Adhunik Metaliks (0.56%) and Abhishek Industries (0.33%).

Sectors in Limelight

The Bankex index was at 9,320.16, down by 55.81 points or by 0.6%. The major losers were Bank Of Baroda(1.23%), I C I C I Bank (0.85%), Indusind Bank (0.7%), H D F C Bank (0.39%) and Bank Of India (0.19%).

The Power index was at 2,989.03, down by 10.94 points or by 0.36%. The major losers were Lanco Infratech (1.02%), Bharat Heavy Electricals (1.02%), Adani Power (0.93%), Reliance Infrastructure (0.53%) and NTPC (0.42%).

The TECk index was at 3,145.65, down by 11.41 points or by 0.36%. The major losers were Bharti Airtel (1.02%), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (0.88%), Oracle Financial Services Software (0.35%), Idea Cellular (0.35%) and Infosys Technologies (0.24%).

On the other hand, the Metal index was at 15,597.84, up by 135.91 points or by 0.88%. The major gainers were Gujarat N R E Coke (3.65%), Jai Corp (1.26%), Hindalco Industries (0.97%), Hindustan Zinc (0.32%) and Jindal Steel & Power (0.21%).

Market Breadth

Market breadth was positive with 1,234 advances against 794 declines.

Value and Volume Toppers

Hindustan Copper topped the value chart on the BSE with a turnover of Rs. 438.54 million. It was followed by Jubilant FoodWorks (Rs. 363.57 million), State Trading Corporation of India (Rs. 346.31 million) and NMDC (Rs. 297.25 million).

The volume chart was led by Subex with trades of over 1.66 million shares. It was followed by Jubilant FoodWorks (1.51 million), Suzlon Energy (1.20 million) and Cals Refineries (1.10 million).