At 05.00 hrs, BSE Sensex was 18167.64 down 271.84 points and NSE Nifty was 5449.65 down 81.85 points.

The top gainers were Reliance up 1.86 percent, Reliance Capital up 0.90 percent, Siemens up 0.74 percent and Reliance Comm up 0.55 percent.

The top losers were Reliance Power down 4.01 percent, Jaiprakash Asso down 3.86 percent, Sesa Goa down 3.77 percent and Dr Reddys Labs down 0.99 percent.
05:00 PM

Japan continue to haunt markets; Sensex falls 135 pts

Simultaneous blasts at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant continue to haunt Indian markets along with other Asian markets. The recent news about increasing radioactive lebel catered more fear.

At 2:07 pm, the benchmark Sensex fell 135 points to 18,303 and the Nifty declined 42 points to 5,489, after showing recovery of 380 points and 115 points from day's low of 17,920 & 5,374, respectively. The broader indices slipped 1 percent.

Sun Pharma, HUL, Siemens, Hero Honda and JSPL were other gainers in afternoon trade. Other largecaps too trimmed their losses - ONGC, Infosys, Wipro, NTPC, BHEL, ICICI Bank, SBI, Sterlite, Tata Motors and SAIL were down 1-2 percent.

Reliance Industries was the biggest gainer with 2.5 percent gain.
2:25 PM

Markets gain power; RIL, heavyweights support

Following buying in some heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Indian markets gained some points recovering the loss of early trades.

At 11:11 am, the 30-share Sensex was down 257 points at 18,181 after falling to 17920 in the first hour of trading. The 50-share Nifty was down 78 points at 5453. Asian markets, meanwhile, remained near their lows for the day.

Auto, metal and realty shares continued to be under pressure, though they are slightly up from the lows of the day.
12:53 PM

Japan misery keeps Sensex low; 452 pts down

Indian markets joined the rally in weak Asian markets following the news of continuous blasts in Japan Fukushima nuclear power plant. Indian equity benchmarks plunged over 2 percent in early trade on Tuesday, Mar 15.

At 9:35 am, the 50-share Nifty index was down 137 points at 5392, and the 30-share Sensex was down 452 points at 17986.

Experts say a massive withdrawal of Japanese money from world markets could be underway, as that country prepares to rebuild.

Japan was the worst hit among Asian markets, down 12 percent, and other markets like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China were down around 3-4 percent.
10:28 AM

OneIndia News