Taking global cues, the market opened with a big negative gap and plunged deeper into the red this morning with stocks, with the exception of those from the information technology sector, recording sharp losses. And then, despite a couple of strong attempts to bounce back - it very nearly succeeded in wiping off its losses on one occasion - it ended the session on a dismal note today.
High oil prices, weak global markets, high inflation and the possibility of it resulting in some monetary tightening measures from the Reserve Bank of India, all contributed to the reluctance of investors to pick up stocks. The uncertainties on the political front also hit the sentiment to a marked extent.
The Sensex, which tanked to a low of 14,163.45 in morning trade, ended the session with a huge loss of 277.97 points or 1.91% at 14,293.32. The Nifty settled at 4266.40 with a loss of 1.87% or 81.15 points. In intra-day trades today, the Nifty hit a low of 4225.50.
Capital goods stocks were battered once again. Mirroring the sell-off in the capital goods space, the BSE CG went down by over 5% today. Heavy selling was seen in metal, power, realty, auto, pharma and bank stocks as well. Oil, PSU and FMCG scrips were not spared either. IT stocks bucked the trend and a few of them ended the session with sharp gains.
Jaiprakash Associates (down 7.95%), Hindalco (down 7.8%), Larsen & Toubro (down 6.5%), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 4.55%), Maruti Suzuki (down 5.4%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (down 5.35%), Reliance Infrastructure (down 4.75%), Reliance Industries (down 3.55%) and Tata Steel (down 4.1%) declined sharply due to heavy selling.
ACC, BHEL, DLF, Grasim Industries, ICICI Bank, ITC and State Bank of India also closed with sharp losses. ONGC, Wipro, HDFC, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computer Services and Tata Motors closed with sharp gains on selective buying support. Bharti Airtel ended flat.
Tata Communications, Suzlon Energy, Unitech, Tata Power, Nalco, SAIL, ABB, Siemens, Hero Honda, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Idea Cellular, Punjab National Bank, Reliance Petroleum and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories ended sharply lower. HCL Technologies and Cairn India finished with smart gains.
Godrej Industries (down 14.4%) was the biggest loser among BSE 'A' Group stocks. Akruti City, Bank of India, Reliance Capital, Sobha Developers, United Breweries, Essar Shipping, India Bulls Financial Services, Alstom Projects, Nagarjuna Constructions, Reliance Power, HDIL, Indian Bank, Punjab Lloyd, EIH, Essar Oil, IFCI and Maytas Infra also ended with big losses. Mid and small cap stocks were mauled. So severe was the selling pressure in these segments that the Midcap and Smallcap barometers declined by around 3.5% today.
The market breadth remain extremely weak right through the session. When trade ended, out of a total of 2697 stocks that saw action on BSE, as many as 2219 stocks were down in the red. 430 stocks closed with gains and 48 stocks ended at their previous closing levels.
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