Indian equities slipped further into the negative zone on the back of heavy selling pressure witnessed in some of the frontliners.
Realty and metal stocks went up, whereas IT and consumer durables stocks led the declines.
BSE Midcap and Smallcap index gained mire than 1 percent each.
Among the sectoral indices, BSE Realty zoomed 2.44%, Metal gained 1.25%, while BSE IT declined 3.81%, Consumer Durables lost more than 2.75%.
The 30-share index, BSE Sensex started the day with a gain of 24.42 points, at 9,679.32.
Madras Aluminum Company Ltd (MALCO), a part of London-listed Vedanta Resources Plc belonging to Anil Agarwal, has announced that it will ‘temporarily suspend’ aluminum production as price of the metal continues to fall on the London Metal Exchange.
The chairman of Ruia Group, Pawan Kumar Ruia met Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to discuss the issue of Dunlop factory closure in Sahagunj, West Bengal. Ruia group had suspended the work at the unit on November 30, amid political and workforce opposition. It has been demanding a loan of Rs 100 crore from the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBDIC) but the government has yet to respond. 
The Reserve Bank of India has indicated further revision of growth forecast for the financial year 2009. The apex bank has earlier forecasted 7.5-8% growth target, which seems hard to achieve, following the impact of global slowdown. The growth rate for the financial year 2009-10 may even slide, under such hard economic conditions. The country registered a growth rate of 7.8% in the first half of the current fiscal as compared to 9.3 percent a year ago. 
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has recommended the imposition of annual administrative charge for 3G technology, which would be 2% of the highest 3G spectrum bid amount. Companies will have to pay the administrative charges in the one year moratorium period from the date of the allocation of spectrum. The regulator has proposed to the standalone 3G players and the new entrant companies to share an additional 3% of their annual gross revenues with the government for using the frequency spectrum. 
