Sensex plummets 725 pts on global weakness
It was a long trip down south for benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty today as the bears thronged the ring at the opening bell and remained busy trampling down stocks cutting across sectors right till the end of the session.
Stockometer
The passage of the $700 billion bailout bill did nothing to lift the sentiment in global markets. The Wall Street had ended on a weak note last Friday after trading firm till the final hour. Asian markets went into a tailspin on doubts about the effectiveness of the bailout package in reviving the financial sector from the current turmoil. European markets crashed as well.
Top gainers
With the reporting season just a few sessions away and fears of heavy fall in revenues for the quarter ended September 2008 haunting the sentiment, investors appeared least inclined to pick up stocks today.
Worst losers
The Sensex crashed to 11,732.97, its lowest level in more than two years. It ended the day 11,801.70 with a massive loss of 724.62 points or 5.78%. The Nifty closed 5.66% or 215.95 points down at 3602.35. It touched a low of 3581.60.
BSE CD went down by 11%. The Realty and Metal indices tumbled 9.91% and 9.27% respectively. BSE CG and Power lost around 7.25%. Oil & Gas index ended 6.14% down. The IT and Teck eased by 5.82% and 5.62% respectively. BSE Healthcare, FMCG, Bankex, PSU and Auto lost 3.5% - 4.8%.
Midcap and smallcap stocks were slaughtered. BSE Midcap lost 7.13% and Smallcap ended lower by 6.92%. The market breadth was very weak right through the session. On BSE, only 281 stocks posted gains. 2369 stocks declined and 27 stocks ended flat.
Selling was so widespread that not even a single Sensex stock ended on a positive note today. Among Nifty stocks, Tata Communications (2.35%), BPCL (1.95%) and GAIL India (0.75%) bucked the weak trend and ended with gains.
Sterlite Industries (down 15.25%) was the biggest loser in the Sensex. Reliance Infrastructure (down 13.9%) was sold heavily in the final hour of trade. Jaiprakash Associates (down 13.55%) had another miserable outing. Tata Steel lost over 11%. DLF ended 10.3% down. Tata Power closed with a loss of 10.15%. Reliance Communications and Grasim Industries closed lower by 9.95% and 9.5% respectively. BHEL lost 7.45%.
Reliance Industries slipped by around 6.75%. Ranbaxy Laboratories lost 6.55%. Larsen & Toubro, Wipro, Satyam Computer Services, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, HDFC, ITC, Infosys Technologies and Tata Motors lost 5% - 6.5%.
ACC, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, ONGC and State Bank of India ended lower by 2% - 4.25%. Hindalco and NTPC also closed with sharp losses.
Suzlon Energy went down by 13.8%. Cairn India slipped by over 11%. Unitech, Reliance Petroleum, Ambuja Cements, Reliance Power, HCL Technologies, Nalco, Zee Entertainment, Idea Cellular, ABB, SAIL and Sun Pharmaceuticals lost 4% - 9%. Hero Honda, Siemens, Cipla and Power Grid Corporation also declined sharply.
Spice Telecom tumbled by over 30% today. Praj Industries, Aban Offshore, Chambal Fertilizers & Chemicals, Shriram Transport, GVK Power, JSW Steel, HDIL, Hindustan Construction Company, Century Textiles, Jindal Steel, India Bulls Financial Services, Phoenix Mills, IB Securities and Bombay Dyeing lost 13% - 20%.
Monnet Ispat, S Kumar's Nationwide, ICSA, Great Offshore, Sterlite Technologies, Gitanjali Gems, Shopper's Stop, Kansai Nero, Shree Precoated Steel, Prakash Industries, Madhucon Projects, Orbit Corporation and Motherson Sumi were some of the big losers in the midcap space.
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The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 242 points at 12,284 on the back of negative cues from the global markets. The NSE Nifty is down 216 points at 3,602.The US markets on Friday tumbled despite the House of Representatives clearing the $700 bn revised bailout package. As a result of which Asian markets were down 3-4% on an average at the opening bell.
Eventually, most of the asian markets like Hang Seng, Nikkei, Straits Times, Shanghai Composite and Seoul Composite indices ended with losses in the range of 4-6% each.
Bank home, the index too witnessed unabated sellling and tumbled below yet another psychological mark of 12,000, to a low of 11,733 - down 793 points from the previous close. The Sensex finally ended with a significant loss of 725 points (5.8%) at 11,802.
In the process, the index has shed 9.6% (1,254 points) in the last two trading sessions, and is down a whopping 41.8% (8,484 points) so far this year.
The BSE Realty index slumped almost 10% (330 points) to 3,000. The Metal index plunged 9.3% (780 points) to 7,636. The Capital Goods and Power indices tumbled over 7% each to 9,495 and 2,066, respectively.
The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,677 stocks traded, 2,369 declined, 281 advanced and 27 were unchanged on Monday.
BIG LOSERS...
Sterlite slumped over 15% to Rs 335. Reliance Infrastructure tumbled 14% to Rs 638, and Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] plunged 13.5% to Rs 100.
Tata Steel [Get Quote] crashed 11% to Rs 350. DLF, Tata Power [Get Quote] and Reliance Communications [Get Quote] dropped around 10% each to Rs 302, Rs 798 and Rs 300, respectively.
Grasim [Get Quote] shed 9.5% at Rs 1,591. BHEL crumbled 7.5% to Rs 1,449.
Reliance, Ranbaxy [Get Quote] and Larsen & Toubro slipped around 6.5% each to Rs 1,642, Rs 246 and Rs 1,083, respectively.
Wipro [Get Quote] and Satyam [Get Quote] dropped over 6% each to Rs 320 and Rs 294, respectively.
TCS [Get Quote], HDFC Bank [Get Quote], HDFC and ITC declined around 5.5% each to Rs 619, Rs 1,202, Rs 1,965 and Rs 180, respectively.
Infosys [Get Quote] and Tata Motors [Get Quote] were down over 5% each at Rs 1,318 and Rs 314, respectively.
MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS
Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 381 crore followed by Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (Rs 244 crore), Axis Bank (Rs 141 crore), ICICI Bank [Get Quote] (Rs 119 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 117.70 crore).
Debutant 20 Microns led the volume chart with trades of around 1.30 crore shares followed by IFCI (1.06 crore), Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (1.04 crore), Reliance Petroleum [Get Quote] (71 lakh) and Jaiprakash Associates (59 lakh).
Source:ET,Sify