Sensex sheds 208 points

The market witnessed a major correction on strong global bearish sentiments and a rise in the crude oil prices. The Sensex shed over 200 points in early trades and plunged sharply to touch the day's low of 13600. The weakness in information technology counters continued through the day and the Sensex ended the session at 13652, down 1.50%. The Nifty declined by 1.26% to close at 3933.

However the breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,724 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,741 stocks advanced, 934 stocks declined and 49 stocks ended unchanged. Barring the BSE CD index the rest of the sectoral indices closed in negative territory. The BSE IT index shed 2.60% followed by the BSE Teck index (down 2.29%), the BSE Metal index (down 1.84%) and the BSE FMCG index (down 1.37%).

Among the major losers Maruti Udyog tumbled 4.09% at Rs897, Wipro declined 3.20% at Rs580, Infosys shed 3.03% at Rs2,206, Satyam Computers fell 3.01% at Rs486 and Reliance Communication slipped 2.64% at Rs435. Bajaj Auto, ACC, SBI, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel and Cipla were down around 2% each. Among the non-Sensex stocks Balaji Telefilms declined 4.09% at Rs133, Mphasis BFL dipped 3.80% at Rs290 and Jet Airways shed 3.67% at Rs615. However, ONGC advanced 1.66% at Rs911, Ranbaxy rose 1.33% at Rs419 and Dr Reddy’s was marginally up at Rs811.

Over 1.40 crore IFCI stocks changed hands on the BSE followed by Pentium (1.28 crore shares), Pyramid (81.53 lakh shares), Vishal Export (75.23 lakh shares) and JCT (47.45 lakh shares).

Value-wise Infosys registered a turnover of Rs148.02 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Industries (Rs95.08 crore), ONGC (Rs53.79 crore), Reliance Communication (Rs51 crore) and TCS (Rs36.16 crore).