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A day after smart relief rally, the sentiments once again turned bearish and benchmarks have made a soft start tracking downtrend in the rupee and weak global cues. Overnight, US stocks and the euro edged lower on Thursday as data suggested Europe's debt woes were spreading and worsening a global economic slowdown while, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red at this point of time. Back home, Sensex breached its crucial 16,200 level after the rupee breaches 56 mark against the dollar in early trade again. On the sectoral front metal and power remained the few gainers while, oil and gas, technology and consumer durables witnessed the most selling pressure, dragging down the Sensex. Meanwhile, PSU oil marketing companies like BPCL, HPCL and IOC edged lower by 1-2 percent on talk of some roll back in the price hike, it is reported that the government may reconsider up to 50 percent cut, which would be a setback for OMCs. However, the broader indices were outperforming and the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 809 shares on the gaining side against 639 shares on the losing side while 73 shares remained unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex opened at 16,213.24; about 9 points lower compared to its previous closing of 16,222.30, and has touched a low of 16,149.95 while high remain its opening.

The index is currently trading at 16,158.32 down by 63.98 points or 0.39%. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 53.19% stocks advancing against 42.01% declines. The broader indices were out performing benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and small cap indices rose 0.22% and 0.39% respectively.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 0.15% and Power up by 0.15%. While, Oil and Gas down by 0.74%, IT down by 0.51%, CD down by 0.47%, PSU down by 0.31% and Auto down by 0.29% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 1.43%, Sun Pharma up by 1.11%, BHEL up by 1.01%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.84% and Tata Power up by 0.73%.

On the flip side, ONGC was down by 1.44%, HDFC was down by 1.10%, Tata Motors was down by 1.07%, ICICI Bank was down by 0.98% and M&M was down by 0.88% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, after hiking the prices of petrol by a record Rs 7.54 a litre, the UPA government has appealed to the Congress led states to cut taxes on petrol. Reacting to the appeal, Kerala government has decided to cut sales tax on petrol by Rs 1.63/litre. The Uttarakhand government has also announced a 25% VAT cut on petrol.

The hike in petrol, which is the third in the past one year, has come after the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister have spoken about need to take 'tough decisions'. However the hike has evoked sharp reactions from the people at large and also from political parties.

The Industry body Assocham has also stated that the hike will come as a blow to the common man and will not help in reducing the fiscal deficit. The automobile industry too pointed out that the price hike would hurt the sector, which is already reeling under a slowing demand.

However the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee has maintained that since petrol is a deregulated fuel, the decision to increase its price has been taken by the oil companies that are reeling under heavy losses.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 4,905.95; about 16 points lower compared to its previous closing of 4,921.40, and has touched a high and a low of 4,911.10 and 4,897.05 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 4,905.40, lower by 16.00 points or 0.33%. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associates up by 2.77%, Tata Steel up by 1.44%, BHEL up by 1.08%, Sun Pharma up by 1.06% and Axis Bank up by 0.96%.

On the flip side, Dr Reddy down by 1.87%, ONCG down by 1.55%, HDFC down by 1.36%, ICICI Bank down by 1.22% and M&M down by 1.18%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red, Shanghai Composite declined 9.43 points or 0.40% to 2,341.54, Hang Seng Index fell 51.74 points or 0.28% to 18,614.66, Jakarta Composite plummeted 54.92 points or 1.38% to 3,929.95, Straits Times Index shed 11.66 points or 0.42% to 2,767.87 and Taiwan Weighted sank 42.85 points or 0.60% to 7,082.04.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite was up 1.46 points or 0.09% to 1,549.71, Nikkei 225 was up 19.53 points or 0.23% to 8,582.91 and KOSPI Composite was up by 9.22 points or 0.51% to 1,823.69.