Sensex slides 654 pts as stock prices plummet, 15month low

Sensex slides 654 pts as stock prices plummet

Equities, led by bank stocks, opened on a negative note on the major Indian bourses this morning on weak global cues and drifted lower and lower as the session progressed as selling continued unabated right till the end.

Stockometer Top gainers Worst losers

Huge credit losses suffered by a few US banks, high oil prices, political uncertainties, spiralling inflation and declining growth all contributed in good measure to the market's sharp slide today. So bearish was the sentiment that stocks found support hard to come by even at sharply lower levels.

Tips to book profits in a falling market! Click here

The Sensex, which had hit a historic high of 21,206.77 in intra-day trades on in early January this year, has tanked by around 8,500 points over a short span of six months.

The Sensex, which crashed to 12,605, its lowest since April 4, 2007, when it had touched a low of 12,691.24, ended the day with a massive loss of 654.32 points or 4.91% at 12,676.19. The Nifty, which plunged to 3835.50 in intra-day trades today, settled at 3861.10, netting a huge loss of 178.60 points or 4.42%.

Besides stocks from the banking sector, several stocks from capital goods, metal, realty, PSU, FMCG, oil and auto sectors too declined sharply and finished with big losses today. Mirroring the sell-off in bank stocks, the Bankex tumbled by 7.75%. BSE Realty (down 5.44%), CG (down 5.25%), Metal (down 5.21%), Power (down 4.91%), PSU (down 4.37%) and HC (down 4.18%) declined sharply. The Teck, Consumer Durables, Oil & Gas and FMCG indices went down by 3% - 4% and BSE Auto eased by 2.5%.

IT stocks, which bounced back in early trade after recent losses, lost their way around mid afternoon and posted sharp losses. Reflecting the losses posted by key stocks in that space, the BSE IT ended lower by 2.34%.

Due to heavy selling at side counters, the Midcap and Smallcap indices plunged by around 3.15% today. The market breadth remained weak right through the session. When trade ended, out of a total of 2696 stocks that were seen in action on BSE, as many as 2093 stocks were down in the red. 543 stocks posted gains and 60 stocks ended flat.

All the components of the benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty finished in the negative territory today. Infosys Technologies (down 0.77%) suffered the least damage. Satyam Computer Services, which stayed in the positive territory for a long time today, closed with a loss of 2.7%. Tata Consultancy Services lost 2.5% while Wipro dropped down by around 6.5%.
Ranbaxy Laboratories (down 14%) has another disastrous outing. Banking sector heavyweights HDFC Bank (down 11.26%), ICICI Bank (down 8.7%) and State Bank of India (down 6.35%) nosedived on sustained selling pressure.

Metal stocks Hindalco and Tata Steel lost 8.3% and 5.4% respectively. Reliance Industries (down 3.4%), Reliance Infrastructure (down 6.1%) and Reliance Communications (down 7.2%) posted sharp losses.

BHEL, HDFC, Jaiprakash Associates and DLF lost 6% - 7%. Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, ITC, Ambuja Cements, Bharti Airtel, Cipla, Hindustan Unilever, Maruti Suzuki and ONGC lost 3% - 5%. NTPC closed with a loss of 2.75%. ACC, Grasim Industries and Tata Motors lost 1.25% - 1.75%.

Idea Cellular ended nearly 8% down. Unitech, Siemens, Sterlite Industries, HCL Technologies, ABB, Suzlon Energy, SAIL, Power Grid Corporation, Nalco and Reliance Petroleum lost 3% - 6.5%. Punjab National Bank, GAIL India, Tata Power, BPCL, Zee Entertainment, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Tata Communications, Cairn India, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and Hero Honda also ended with sharp losses.

IVRCL Infrastructure, Tata Chemicals, Chambal Fertilizers, Century Textiles, IDFC, India Infoline, Financial Technologies, Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, JSW Steel, Union Bank of India, Sun TV Network, Essar Shipping, Shree Precoated Steels, Alstom Projects, Mundra Port, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Adani Enterprises, Moser Baer, CMC, Lok Housing, Champagne Industries, Arshya International, Sterlite Technologies, Aptech, Advanta and Assam Company were among the major losers today.

IFCI, Tech Mahindra, ABG Shipyard, Bhushan Steel and Aban Offshore finished with marginal gains. BF Utilites, Walchandnagar Industries, Prithvi Infosystems, Zuari Industries, Allcargo Global, SKF India, SpiceJet, Cranes Software, ING Vysya Bank, Kesoram Industries, Marg, Ahluwalia and Consolidated Construction Consortium moved up sharply on selective buying support.
-----------------------------------------------
Indian rupee falls to 1-wk low on Fitch downgrade
World's best places to invest in realty
Wanted! Regional language speakers for BPOs