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With the markets continuing to trade lower this week, both the Sensex and Nifty lost over 3.5 per cent to close at 18,736 and 5,651 respectively. In line with the global markets, Indian benchmark indices fell sharply on Monday, reacting to the Cyprus bank bailout plan. The markets also displayed caution on the first trading day, ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy review.

On Tuesday, the markets plunged on fears of political uncertainty as DMK, a key constituent of the ruling UPA, withdrew its support to the Government. With key legislations pending passage, the DMK pullout has raised concerns about the future of economic reforms. The 25 basis point repo rate cut on Tuesday failed to curb the market slide, as the RBI signalled limited scope for monetary easing in the near future.

For the remaining part of the week too, the markets remained weak amidst worries on the political front.

All sectoral indices ended in the red except S&P BSE FMCG, which gained a marginal 0.1 per cent. S&P BSE Realty (down 13 per cent) registered the sharpest decline. The other losers — S&P BSE PSU, S&P BSE Power, S&P BSE Metal and S&P BSE Capital Goods — lost 7-8 per cent.

The stock of Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd plummeted 29 per cent following downgrade of its non-convertible debentures issue worth Rs 2, 094 crore by rating agency CARE. The downgrade was on account of delays by HDIL in servicing its non-convertible debenture obligations.

Other realty losers include Unitech and DLF which lost almost 14-15 per cent during the week.

Bharti Airtel’s stock plunged on Monday after the CBI special court summoned the company chairman, Sunil Mittal, for his alleged involvement in additional spectrum allocation back in 2002. The stock however partially recouped loss to close the week 6 per cent lower.

The stock of Manappuram Finance plunged 31 per cent on weak outlook for the March quarter by the company’s management. It cited under-recovery on certain gold loan portfolios due to price correction as the key reason for this.

Following the bleak guidance from the management of Manappuram Finance, analysts raised concerns about other gold lending NBFCs too. Gold financier Muthoot Finance lost 13 per cent during the week. State-owned steel major SAIL’s stock shed 8 per cent during the week, sliding in the run up to the proposed 5.8 per cent stake sale by the government. It continued to fall even after commencement of its offer for sale on Friday. The floor price was set at a 1.41 per cent discount to Thursday’s closing price.

Coal India lost 7 per cent on reports that the government may offload 10 per cent of its stake in the coal producer next fiscal.

With RBI Deputy Governor K.C. Chakraborty giving a clean chit to the private sector banks that were accused of money laundering, the stocks of ICICI Bank and Axis Bank gained on Thursday. They, however, ended 4 per cent and 3 per cent lower respectively for the week.

Alstom India gained 4 per cent after it received a Rs 573-crore contract from BHEL. The order entails supplying components for the 660 MW supercritical boilers of Nabinagar Power Generating Company.