On Wednesday, the BSE Sensex fell by 58.14 points to below the 4,800 mark and closed at 4756.20. However, the S&P CNX Nifty on the NSE shed a marginal 2.95 points and closed at 1411.40.

There is all-round pessimism in the market. Even the companies which reported good results during the week were hammered. Prominent among them are IPCL and Supreme Petrochem. Both the scrips, on Wednesday, either touched the lower cap or approached that level. As a dealer put it, ``when companies reporting good results are being hammered so mercilessly, there is no place for the laggards.''

However, for a select minority, the current reaction is more technical in nature than fundamental. ``As of now, the fall is more technical in nature rather than to do with the fundamentals,'' says Abhay Aima, VP, Equities, HDFC Bank.

Markets remained extremely bearish on Wednesday. Almost 90 per cent of the pivotals witnessed huge selling pressure, and ended up with losses. The index opened at 4821.32 points, and marginally improved to 4828.25 points. However, after this initial recovery, the performance for the rest of the day was far from impressive. It dipped to a low of 4708.40 points before closing at 4755.47 points, showing a net fall of 58.87 points. This fall could have been severe, had Hindustan Lever not remained firm, the stock which showed a rally of over six per cent.

The story in the other counters was bearish. Reliance, Tisco, SBI, ACC, MTNL, Ranbaxy, and Bhel showed a sharp drop. The software sector was also under huge selling pressure. Satyam Computers, HCL, Global Tele, Siverline, and Tata Elxsi showed a sharp decline. The only counter which managed to show an impressive gain was Pentafour Software. It hit the upper circuit on the NSE, and also up by 5 per cent on the BSE. Infosys, and NIIT also remained dull for major part of the day.

The beginning was good for the steel sector. However, during the second half of the day, as a result of huge selling pressure, Tisco hit the lower circuit on the BSE. The impact also felt on counters like SAIL, and Essar Steels.

The story for the cement sector was no diffirent. ACC hit the lower circuit during the first half of the day. L&T, Grasim, India Cements, and Gujarat Ambuja also felt the selling pressure, and showed a substantial fall. Overall, the sentiment was negative and almost 80 per cent of the specified stocks showed a lower close.

The only counter in the specifited list showed handsome gains were Parke Davis, and Sun Pharma.

Among the non-specified list, stocks like Tata Finance, Padmini Poly, Laffans Petro, Eicher Motors, Mastek, Alfa Laval, Searle, Prima Plastic, Federal Bank, Bank of Rajasthan, Nath Seeds, VLS Finance,, and Sandesh showed impressive gains.