Indian shares slide

Indian shares fell 2.2 percent to their lowest close in nearly two months on Tuesday, as world stocks weakened on risk aversion due to worries over Ireland's debt woes and talk of further monetary tightening in China. The main stock index posted its biggest single-day percentage point fall in five and a half months, with financials leading the decline.
The 30-share BSE index declined 2.19 percent, or 444.55 points, to 19,865.14 points, its lowest close since September 23. The index is up 13.7 percent so far in 2010. Only one of its components closed in the green. More than four shares declined for every share that advanced in the broader market. 474 million shares changed hands on the BSE, 13.4 percent higher than the 30-day average.
Foreign funds, which have invested a net of $28.4 billion in Indian primary and secondary equities so far in 2010, turned net sellers on November 12, their first outflow in November. Their inflows showed signs of slowing down in the two sessions before that. "We cannot say the trend has reversed as yet, going by what has happened in a few sessions," Agrawal said.
Year end is also usually when profits are booked, he said. "Let's give it more time before we conclude anything." Mahindra Satyam fell as much as nearly 14 percent to 72.60 rupees, its lowest since July 2009, a day after it posted a fiscal second-quarter profit that narrowed from the first quarter as wage hikes squeezed margins.
Bharti Airtel, was the only Sensex constituent that closed in the green, after Citigroup upgraded the top mobile operator to "buy" from hold" and named it as their top pick among Indian telecoms. Bharti gained 1.2 percent to 313.10 rupees. The banking sector index shed 2 percent, after a 2.4 percent rise on Monday. Leading lenders State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank dropped between 0.7 percent and 2.6 percent.
Metal producers slid on a drop in base metal prices in London and Shanghai as the potential for Chinese monetary policy tightening continued to drag prices. Non-ferrous metals producer Sterlite Industries and aluminium producer Hindalco slid 5.4 percent and 5.2 percent each. Tata Steel, world's seventh-largest producer of the alloy, declined 1.9 percent. The 50-share NSE index declined 2.2 percent to 5,988.709 points.