Markets plunge

The Sensex notched up gains of 93 points in early trades and touched an intra-day high of 13492. However it could not hold on to the gains and drifted into negative territory. The market appeared extremely bearish as the trading session progressed. Hectic selling in heavyweight, capital goods, PSU, metal and banking stocks in the afternoon dragged the index to the day's low of 12802. The Sensex ended the session with losses of 404 points at 12995, while the Nifty shed 133 points to close at 3717.

All the Sensex stocks closed in negative territory. Grasim Industries tumbled 7.33% at Rs2,506, ACC faltered 6.16% at Rs972, Reliance Communication lost 6.11% at Rs403, Gujarat Ambuja Cement dropped 5.10% at Rs130, SBI slipped 5.06% at Rs1,180, Bharti Airtel shed 4.94% at Rs577, TCS slumped 4.47% at Rs1,119, Ranbaxy fell 4.32% at Rs360, NTPC declined 4.24% at Rs137 and BHEL dipped 4.12% at Rs2,429. Hindalco, Reliance Energy, ONGC, ITC and HDFC shed 3% each.

The market breadth was extremely negative. Of the 2,625 stocks traded on the BSE, 2,160 stocks declined, 424 stocks advanced and 41 stocks ended unchanged. All the 11 sectoral indices on the BSE ended in negative territory. The BSE PSU index was the biggest loser and dropped 4.39% at 5712 followed by the BSE CG index (down 4.14% at 8755), the BSE Metal index (down 3.90% at 8,341), the BSE Bankex (down 3.23% at 6532) and the BSE Auto index (down 3.13% at 5080).

Over 36.25 lakh Parsvnath shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Communication (32.35 lakh shares), Zee Telefilms (30.02 lakhs shares), Reliance Industries (27.01 lakh shares) and Hindalco (20.35 lakh shares).

Value-wise Reliance Industries registered a turnover of Rs326 crore followed by Parsvnath (Rs152 crore), Reliance Communication (Rs130 crore), SBI (Rs110 crore) and Zee Telefilms (Rs94 crore).