Sensex plummets 349 points

The market took a sharp dip after a positive open and continued moving down, as shares across sectors witnessed substantial selling pressure amid fears that the government may follow the footsteps of Thailand to restrict the volatility caused by foreign financial investors. The session opened with a positive gap of five points at 13737 and saw considerable volatility through the day. The selling pressure in front-line stocks kept the consumer durables, tech, information technology and FMCG stocks in the red that dragged down the index to an intra-day low of 13237. The Sensex finally ended the session with losses of 2.54% and was down 349 points at 13382, while the Nifty tumbled 2.46% and was down 97 points at 3832.

The breadth of the market was extremely negative. Of the 2,619 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,632 stocks declined, 925 stocks advanced and 62 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE CG index shed 3.28% at 8894 followed by the BSE IT index (down 3.02% at 5047), the BSE Teck index (down 2.76% at 3489) and the BSE FMCG index (down 2.34% at 1904).

Among the Sensex stocks, only Hero Honda managed to close in positive territory. NTPC tumbled 4.58% at Rs134, BHEL plunged 4.38% at Rs2,287, L&T slumped 3.81% at Rs1,416, Reliance Communication dropped 3.58% at Rs451, Satyam Computers shed 3.39% at Rs464, TCS lost 3.39% at Rs1,142 and ACC declined 3.36% at Rs1,018. The other front-line stocks were also down 2-3% each. However, Hero Honda was marginally up at Rs753.