Sensex loses 769 pts; Nifty loses 271 points : Sify India

Sensex loses 769 pts; Nifty loses 271 pts
India's Sensex Falls Most in Four Months;
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The benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty recorded one of their worst outings ever as the bears went on a rampage on the major Indian bourses today. The sharp fall on Wall Street last Friday due to fresh worries over rising inflation and threatening losses on the subprime market front triggered a sell-off on the Asian bourses.

The Indian bears were quick to latch on to the opportunity, and, so strong was the onslaught that blue chip stocks were seen grasping for breath right through the session today.

Stocks cutting across sectors were hammered mercilessly today. Though midcap and smallcap stocks were spared the stick till around mid-afternoon, a severe bout of pressure that engulfed the market during the final hour of trade knocked the wind out these stocks as well. While the Midcap index tumbled by 3.87%, the Smallcap barometer suffered a loss of 2.91%.

The Sensex, which opened at 20,032.67 this morning and drifted lower and lower as the session progressed, crashed to a low of 19,177.19 during the fag end of the day and finally settled at 19,261.35, netting a stunning loss of 769.48 points or 3.84%.

The Nifty, which nosedived to 5740.60 in the final hour of trade, finished with a huge loss of 270.70 points or 4.48% at 5777.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Metal, which plunged 7.28%, was the biggest loser. The Realty, PSU and Oil & Gas indices lost 5.65%, 5.63% and 5.13% respectively. The Power index went down by 4.8%. The Auto, Bankex, CD, Capital Goods and Teck lost 3% - 4%. The FMCG, Healthcare and IT indices closed lower by 2.33%, 2.55% and 2.16% respectively.

Realty stock DLF, which went down by 7.5% to Rs 944.25, was the biggest loser in the Sensex pack. NTPC lost 7.3% as it settled at Rs 228.60. Tata Steel and Hindalco, two of the prominent gainers last week, closed lower by 6.15% and 5.65% respectively.

Housing finance stock HDFC eased by 5.9% to Rs 2877.55. PSU oil & gas exploration major ONGC slipped by 5.8% to Rs 1166.45. Telecom stocks Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications tumbled 5% and 5.55% respectively.

BHEL declined by 5.3%. Tata Motors (down 5.8%), Reliance Energy (down 4.2%), State Bank of India (down 3.95%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (down 3.9%), Reliance Industries (down 3.85%), ACC (down 3.7%), ITC (down 3.5%), ICICI Bank (down 3.25%), Tata Consultancy Services (down 3.25%), Maruti Suzuki (down 3.05%), HDFC Bank (down 2.9%), Ambuja Cements (down 2.7%), Grasim Industries (down 2.6%), Larsen & Toubro (down 2.2%), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 2.15%) and Wipro (down 2.1%) also declined sharply.

IT bellwether Infosys Technologies, which remained positive for a while, ended with a loss of 1.5%. Bajaj Auto and Satyam Computer Services (down 1.25%) too closed on a weak note. Cipla, after a prolonged spell in the positive territory, turned south and slipped by 0.6%.

Hindustan Unilever, the only Sensex component to end on the positive side today, closed 0.8% up at Rs 218.60. Even among Nifty stocks, except Hindustan Unilever, all others finished in the red today.

Idea Cellular lost a little over 8%. Sterlite Industries, SAIL, Nalco, Suzlon Energy and Reliance Petroleum drifted down by 6% - 8%. Punjab National Bank and Cairn India lost more than 5%. BPCL, VSNL, Sun Pharmaceuticals and ABB lost between 4% and 5% today.

GlaxoSmithKline Pharma, GAIL India, Unitech, Zee Entertainment, Siemens and HCL Technologies also finished with sharp losses. Hero Honda, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and Tata Power eased by 0.4% - 0.75%.

The market breadth, which remained positive till about an hour to go for the closing bell, turned negative towards the end. Out of 2954 stocks traded on BSE today, 1944 stocks closed in the negative territory. 995 stocks managed to sign off on a winning note and 16 stocks ended unchanged from their previous closing levels.

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