Sensex Ends The Day Lower, Loses 1,200 Points From Day’s High

The Sensex lost almost 1,200 points from the day's high to end the day lower, as selling in private sector banks led to decline.

Heavyweights like HDFC, HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries dragged the indices lower, with sharp cuts. In fact, HDFC Bank fell as much as 4 per cent in trade. The Sensex ended down by 310 points, while the Nifty lost 68 points.

According to reports brokerage firm Macquarie has cut EPS estimates of private banks by 35-40 percent and price targets by nearly 45 percent. This led to some weakish sentiments for private sector banks. Among the bigger private sector banks, Kotak Mahindra was a major loser falling as much as 5 per cent.

Pharma stocks continued to see buying support with Glenmark Pharma being among the top winners in trade.

Global cues were weak with most of the Asian markets ending the day lower, and European markets seeing cuts of near 2 per cent. Dow Futures too were pointing to lower openings for the US markets, which have had a good rally in the last one week.

Meanwhile, the Indian rupee erased all its early gains and ended near day's low level at 76.44 to the dollar.