Local equity markets lost all most all of their previous session's gains on Thursday, as investors resorted to profit booking tracking subdued global cues and surge in the food price inflation for the second consecutive week. The markets recouped some of their losses in late morning trades. But the recovery remained short-lived as increase in the food inflation to 17.56% for the week ended January 23 from 17.40% in the previous week spread jitters among investors community. The benchmark indices tumbled to their day's lows in last half an hour of trade and closed almost to that level. The NSE's 50 share Nifty ended below the psychological 4850-level. Metal stocks, which led the Wednesday's smart up move, witnessed serious damage in day's trade following correction in the commodity prices globally. Realty, auto and software stocks were the other prominent losers in trade. Shares from public sector undertaking, fast moving consumer goods, oil & gas and consumer durables space failed to hold on to their earlier gains in the latter part of the day. Meanwhile, the Kirit Parikh committee report, which was tabled on Wednesday, resulted in sentiment booster for the state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) in trade. GAIL India witnessed good gains in trade as the Kirit Parikh committee has recommended that the state-run entity should not share the subsidy burden as it is not an upstream company. Finally, the BSE Sensex plummeted 271.10 points or 1.64% to close at 16,224.95 while the S&P CNX Nifty plunged 86.50 points or 1.75% to end at 4845.35.

The US markets plunged on Thursday and all the major indices slumped by more than 2.5 percent. It was the slew of bad economic news that filled jitters in the minds of investors. Dow in its intraday trade even went below 10000 mark. The news of unexpected jump in the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits coupled with rising debt levels in European nations led the markets lower. The Labor Department said Thursday that claims for unemployment benefits rose by 8,000 to 480,000 last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged by 268.37 points, or 2.61%, to 10,002.18.The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 34.17 points, or 3.11%, to 1,063.11, its steepest drop since April 20, 2009 while the Nasdaq composite index closed lower by 65.48 points, or 2.99%, to 2,125.43.

The crude prices plunged in sync with the stock markets on Thursday and suffered a decline of about 5%, its steepest one day decline since July 2009. The risk aversion factor led the strengthening of dollar and the euro went to its seven month low against the greenback, pulling the crude prices considerably lower. The Benchmark crude for March delivery settled down $3.84, or 4.99 percent, at $73.14 a barrel, trading in a range of $72.42 to $77.17. In London, March Brent crude ended down $3.79, or 4.99 percent, at $72.13 a barrel.

The Indian rupee pared some of its previous day's gains on Thursday. The domestic currency started weak on sluggish global cues and also on the strength of dollar against other Asian currencies. The rupee had surged to its six week high in the previous trade tracking the bullish equity markets but was unable to hold its gains as the local markets turned down all their previous day's gains. Though, the FIIs remained buyer for the second consecutive day in equity segment. Finally the rupee closed at 46.26, 28 paise lower compared to its Wednesday's close of 45.98.

The FII on Thursday were the net buyers in both equity as well as debt segments. In equity segment the gross buying was of Rs 2374.40 crore against gross sell of Rs 1888.80 crore, while in the debt segment the gross purchase was of Rs 451.70 crore with gross sales of Rs 180.40 crore.

The US markets plunged due to the unexpected rise in jobless claims which was expected to come lower and also on fear of the growing debt in the European nation.These factors have led to the belief among the investors that the global economy is weaker then what was being expected. The Asian markets have made a very weak start and most of the indices are trading lower by more than 2.5%. The domestic markets that declined in previous session is likely to sink deeper into red today with a gap down start.

Support and Resistance: S&P CNX Nifty and BSE Sensex

                                                                   Nifty Top volumes

• M&M's domestic tractor sales for the month of January 2010, increased by 69% to 15925 units, as compared to 9438 units for the same period last year.
• ACC reported a 32.48% rise in net profits at Rs 1212.7 crore for the quarter ended Dec 31, compared to Rs.1606.7 crore in the same quarter of last fiscal.
• Ashok Leyland has sold total 7,871 commercial vehicles in January 2010 as compared to 2,444 units in January 2009, up by huge 222%.
• HCL Technologies has announced a partnership with software company -- nMetric -- to provide intelligent shop floor solutions to automotive manufacturers.
• Bharti Airtel, has launched 'Unlimited Sunday' offer on the occasion of Valentine's Day, offering unlimited free Local and STD calls to its fixed line customers.

Cetirizine Hydrochloride Solution 1mg/mL...