Mumbai: June 18, 2009 - Indian markets came under pressure as investors booked profits in over valued stocks and on rising concerns of health of global economy. Realty, metals and power were the worst hit while IT stocks bucked the trend.

“Though we can’t really escape weak global cues for long, the Indian market could attempt a recovery after Wednesday’s sudden sell-off. There have been some concerns over the lofty stock valuations without any commensurate improvement in fundamentals. However, today is a new day. The bulls are keen to get back to winning ways, especially considering India's relatively better positioning vis-à-vis other economies. The market will remain choppy with alternative bouts of rise and fall depending on how global cues play out,” said India Infoline report.

At 1:20 pm, Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was at 14,333.41, down 189.43 points or 1.30 per cent. The index touched intra-day low of 14333.41 and high of 14630.73.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was at 4271.45, down 84.70 points or 1.94 per cent. The broader index hit a low of 4270.85 and high of 4375.30 in trade so far.

“Support for the day continues to exists far lower around levels of 4300-4310 range below which we may observe sharp wave of sell-off which may see indices slipping towards next support range of 4260-4270 range while hurdle for the day exists around levels of 4410-4420 range,” said Reliance Money report

BSE Midcap Index was down 2.79 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index declined 2.69 per cent.

Biggest Sensex gainers comprised Infosys Technologies (2.08%), Sun Pharmaceuticals (1.49%), State Bank of India (1.48%), Tata Motors (1.2%) and Tata Consultancy Services (0.79%).

ACC (-8.38%), Jaiprakash Associates (-6.34%), Tata Steel (-5.54%), Grasim Industries (-4.17%) and DLF (-3.99%) were the biggest losers.

Market breadth remained negative with 1847 declines against 567 advances on BSE.

European markets were in the positive terrain. FTSE 100 was up 0.21 per cent, CAC 40 gained 0.01 per cent and DAX inched 0.35 per cent higher.