The Sensex ended the day lower by 316 points, while the Nifty lost 93.40 points in trade today. Among the top losers in trade were ONGC, Hindalco, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Coal India, Reliance, Larsen and Toubro and Mahindra and Mahindra.

Rail stocks took it on the chin as the Railway Budget failed to inspire any confidence. Stocks that cater to the Railways that declined in trade were Kalindee Rail Nirman, Titagarh Wagons, Texmaco and Kernex Micro.

Technology stocks were gainers in trade today with Infosys and TCS both seeing buying support. Bharti Airtel which jumped almost 9 per cent in early trade after the 2G auction received poor response gave up most of its gains to end the day almost flat. Heavyweight, ITC and Hindustan Lever also gained along with Grasim and NTPC.

Realty stocks that were among the favourites of operators till recently saw huge cuts in trade. Among the top losers from the sector were HDIL , Indiabulls, Anant Raj, Sobha Developers and Prestige Estate.

Metal stocks were one of the most badly hit in trade today with prominent losers from the pack being Welspun Corporation, Tata Steel, Sail and Orissa Minerals.

Shares of Pantaloon Retail slumped after the company reported a huge loss for the period ending December 31, 2012

Shares of Kingfisher Airlines dropped almost 5 per cent after the Aviation Ministry withdrew international bilateral traffic rights of the company.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were badly battered with the Nikkei losing more than 2 per cent, while the Chinese Shanghai Composite closed lower by 1.4 per cent, while the Hong Kong's Hang Sang dropped 1.32 per cent.

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