Old Bridge Capital Management Founder Kenneth Andrade says excesses in the small and microcap space raise concerns and there is an anticipation of volatility 
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Old Bridge Capital Management Founder Kenneth Andrade says excesses in the small and microcap space raise concerns and there is an anticipation of volatility Indian equity benchmarks stayed in the sharp correction mode in Thursday's trade, dragged by state-owned banks, pharma, healthcare and automobile stocks. The 30-share BSE Sensex pack slipped 471 points or 0.67 per cent to trade at 70,035 while the broader NSE Nifty index moved 125 points or 0.59 per cent down to trade at 21,025. Mid- and small-cap shares were negative as Nifty Midcap 100 fell 0.39 per cent and small-cap shed 0.36 per cent. India VIX, fear index, rose 2.88 per cent to 14.87-level.
On the global front, Asian shares opened lower after a drop in Wall Street equities overnight.
Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers during the previous session, offloading Rs 1,322.08 crore of shares on a net basis while domestic institutional investors (DII) bought shares worth Rs 4,754.34 crore.
On Wednesday, Sensex had slumped 931 points or 1.30 per cent to settle at 70,506 while Nifty had index moved nearly 303 points or 1.41 per cent to end at 21,150 level.
On BSE, Indian Bank, IIFL, Prestige, Adani Power, City Union Bank slumped up to 6.86 per cent.
13 out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the NSE -- were trading in the red. Sub-indexes Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Pharma, Nifty Healthcare and Nifty Auto were underperforming the NSE platform by falling as much as 1.60 per cent, 1.41 per cent, 1.44 per cent and 1.11 per cent, respectively.
On the stock-specific front, Axis Bank was the top gainer in the Nifty pack as the stock cracked 2.49 per cent to trade at Rs 1,082.55. Cipla, Bajaj Auto, L&T and Dr Reddy's fell up to 2.04 per cent.
In contrast, ONGC, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, LTIMindtree and UltraTech Cement were among the top gainers.
The overall market breadth was negative as 1,657 shares were declining while 1,239 were advancing on BSE.
On the 30-share BSE index, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, L&T, ITC, Infosys, Bajaj Finance and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) were among the top losers.
Also, Indian Bank, IIFL, Prestige, Adani Power, City Union Bank, Suzlon Energy, Varun Beverages, DCM Shriram and Finolex Cables dived up to 6.84 per cent. On the flipside, Gujarat Ambuja Exports, NLC India, Zee Entertainment, Vodafone Idea, Zensar Technologies, Mazagon Dock and IRCTC climbed up to 4.29 per cent.
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