The markets started the week on a weaker note and remained in favour of bears for the third consecutive day. Banking, capital goods, metal, FMCG, realty, power and auto stocks were major downers. The Nifty closed below 4900 mark and the Sensex below 16500 levels. Weak global cues also added to negative sentiments. Midcap and small cap stocks have got hammered a lot, both indices lost over 2.3%.

Market breadth was weak; about 772 shares have advanced, 2174 shares declined, and 161 shares remained unchanged.

The Sensex ended at 16,348.50, down 301.14 points or 1.81% after hitting an intraday high of 16,498.24 and low of 16,300.88. The Nifty has touched a high/low of 4953.60 and 4858.00 before closing the day at 4875.05, slipped 71.5 points or 1.45%.

The BSE Midcap and Small cap indices fell 2.54% at 6,760.77 and 2.34% at 8,318.20, respectively.

Amongst midcap space, Bajaj Holdings, South Ind Bk, Bajaj Hind, Ashapura Mine, Mercator Lines, HT Media, IVRCL Infras, Patel Eng and Shree Renuka were down over 7%. Amongst small cap segment, Alphageo, English Ind Cla, El Forge, Mercator Lines, India Glycols and Empire Ind were down over 8%.

Top losing shares on the bourses were JP Associates (-5.58%), Ambuja Cements (-5.38%), BHEL (-5.21%), Reliance Communications (-5.08%) and ICICI Bank (-4.84%) while Infosys (3.29%), Bharti Airtel (3.15%), TCS (2.69%), Sun Pharma (3.48%) and Idea Cellular (3.08%) gainers.

BSE Bankex underperformed other indices, closed at 7,939.25, down 3.56% or 292.91 points due to huge selling in Federal Bank, Kotak Mahindra, IOB, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Union Bank, Oriental Bank and Bank of Baroda.

Metal stocks like Jindal Saw, Ispat Industries, Jindal Steel, SAIL, Sterlite Ind, Hindalco, Hind Zinc and Tata Steel lost shine. BSE Metal Index was down 2.69% or 452.59 points to settle at 16,343.21.

FMCG Index plunged 2.44% at 2,329.24 as weakness seen in Colgate, Godrej Consumer, ITC, Dabur India, Marico, United Breweries and HUL.

Capital Goods stocks like Praj Industries, BHEL, L&T, Thermax, Bharat Elec, Alstom Projects, Bharat Bijlee, Rel Ind Infra and Punj Lloyd also hammered. BSE Capital Goods Index slipped 2.72% or 358.74 points at 12,833.68.

BSE Power Index lost 2.39% to end at 3,126.32 on the back of selling pressure in CESC, Tata Power, Reliance Power, Reliance Infra, GMR Infra, Torrent Power and GVK Power.

Auto stocks like Hind Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Escorts, Bharat Forge, Punj Tractors, TVS Motor, Cummins, Apollo Tyres and Tata Motors lost the road. Auto Index fell 1.9% at 4,532.03.

Realty stocks continued to collapse like a pack of card. Realty Index tumbled 2.26% at 7,340.09 as HDIL, Ansal Properties, Peninsula Land, Akruti City, Sobha Developer, Parsvnath, Unitech, Anant Raj Ind, Puravankara Proj, Omaxe, Mahindra Life and DLF ended lower.

Oil & Gas Index also crashed 154.61 points or 1.41% at 10,820.65. Essar Oil, BPCL, Petronet LNG, RNRL, IOC, Reliance, HPCL, GAIL and ONGC witnessed sell off.

However, technology index have outperformed other indices and closed at 4,418, up 1.77% despite weak markets. Infosys, TCS, HCL Tech and Satyam.

Most active shares on the bourses were Cairn India, Reliance, Reliance Capital and Infosys.

New listings - Bajaj Auto closed at Rs 604.50 and Bajaj Finserv at Rs 514.65.

Total turnover traded on the markets stood at Rs 60414.5 crore including Rs 11900.57 crore from NSE Cash segment, Rs 44103.52 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 4410.41 crore from BSE Cash segment.

Asian markets were trading lower. Shanghai Composite was down 2.59% or 89.89 points at 3,383.20. Hang Seng fell 2.01% or 496.81 points at 24,217.26. Nikkei 225 Average slipped 260.33 points or 1.86% at 13,751.87. Jakarta Composite was down 38.24 points or 1.55% at 2,427.71. Straits Times fell 0.77% or 23.99 points at 3,098.16. Seoul Composite went down 1.49% or 27.17 points at 1,800.77. Taiwan Weighted fell 0.74% or 65.36 points at 8,769.37.