Market chokes under heavy sell-off, Nifty tumbles 1.61 pc

Mumbai, Feb 1 (PTI) Consistent macro worries amidst Egyptunrest cast shadows on the domestic bourses with the benchmarkCNX Nifty extending its sell-off for the fifth consecutivesession by falling another 88.70 points at the National StockExchange (NSE) here today.

The 50-share index swung wildly between 5,539.15 and5,402.00 before ending at 5,417.20, down 88.70 points or 1.61per cent over its previous close.

The market failed to maintain its initial positivenessand started falling on the back of sustained profit takingamidst volatility while sidelining global bullishness.

In mid-afternoon trade the key index showed some signs ofrecovery but failed miserably with hectic sell-off infrontline counters along with banks, steel, auto, fmcg, tech,infra and realty.

"The market is going downstream while struggling tograpple with the macro situation, subsequently breaking allsupport levels clearly indicating the weak undertone," traderssaid.

"Worsening Egypt crises and its impact on crude is anadded headache for the markets like us which is more promptingFIIs to dump shares," they added.

Tata Motors, BPCL, Jindal Steel, JP Associates, RelianceCapital, L&T, Suzlon, Rcom, Rpower and Reliance Infra were thetop losers from Nifty.

However, HDFC, Bajaj Auto, Sterlite Industries and ONGCregistered some gains.

Total turnover in the cash segment dropped to Rs13,696.99 crore from Rs 14,222.63 crore yesterday. A total of6,955.29 lakh shares changed hands in 62,96,956 trades. Themarket capitalisation stood at Rs 63,50,869 crore.