Sensex down 172 points; SBI, ONGC slump

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A benchmark index for Indian equities markets was trading nearly one per cent down in the afternoon session on Friday due to disappointing earnings of bluechip firms like SBI and ONGC.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened in the negative at 18,832.75 points, was trading at 18,674.24 points in the afternoon session, down 0.91 percent or 172.02 points from its previous close at 18846.26 points.

The benchmark Sensex touched a high of 18,894.42 points and a low of 18,656.88 points intra-day.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was trading 0.92 percent or 52.55 points lower at 5,686.20 points.

State Bank of India slumped over four percent due to disappointing earnings. It was trading 3.88 percent lower at Rs.21,56.50.

The country's largest lender Friday said its net profit increased by 30.16 percent to Rs.3,658.14 crore for the quarter ended Sep 30, 2012 as compared to Rs.2,810.43 crore recorded in the corresponding quarter of previous year. This is the slowest increase in the bank's net profit in the last three quarters. The results were below market expectation.

Share price of ONGC slumped 3.05 percent at Rs.257.10.

There was heavy selling pressure in banking, oil and gas and public sector undertaking (PSU) stocks.

The BSE banking index was down 1.45 percent, PSU index was down 1.51 percent and oil and gas index was down 1.21 percent.

Other major Sensex losers were: BHEL, 1.94 percent down at Rs.232.75; ICICI Bank, down 1.77 percent at Rs.1057; Sterlite Inds, down 1.75 percent at Rs.100.95 and Hero MotoCorp, down 1.27 percent at Rs.1,899.75.

Only seven of the 30 Sensex scrips were in the positive.

Cipla, up 0.50 percent at Rs.394.90; Jindal Steel, up 0.39 percent at Rs.384.35; Bajaj Auto, up 0.35 percent at Rs.1851.85, and Maruti Suzuki, up 0.32 percent at Rs.1,464.75 were among the major gainers.