The Sensex shed 290 points, while the Nifty lost 103 points in trade today. Investors attribute the sharp losses to a Budget which failed to infuse any fresh measures to push growth.

Among the top losers in trade were the banking and metal stocks which were badly hit. Shares of ICICI Bank dropped 3.86 per cent, while State Bank of India dropped a huge 6 per cent. Other banking stocks that declined were PSU banking stocks like Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of India and IDBI Bank. UCO Bank slumped by 10 per cent.

Infrastructure stocks also came in for selling pressure with stocks like Larsen and Toubro and BHEL declining in trade on lack of measures to push infrastructure spending or growth.

Realty stocks were the worst hit in trade today with prominent losers being DLF, Unitech, HDIL, Brigade Enterprises and Prestige Estates. This is despite the Union Budget hiking the interest tax exemption on home loans to Rs 2.5 lakhs.

Among the few gainers in trade today were TCS, Bajaj Auto and Bharti Airtel.

Metal stocks were the worst affected in trade with Tata Steel plunging 4.67 per cent, while other losers were Sail, Sesa Goa, Sterlite, Nalco, JSW Steel and Monnet Ispat.

Oil sector shares came crashing down after certain expectations in the Union Budget were not met. Pharma stocks had a quiet day as the Budget had no proposals for the same.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia ended the day higher with the Japanese Nikkei, the Hong Kong's Hang Sang and the Shanghai Compiste ending higher. Markets are expected to continue to decline and analysts are worried that the Nifty may break key resistance levels.

GoodReturns.in