14K Gone: Sensex plunges 389pts

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 50 points at 14,071, but could go no higher as selling pressure forced the index into negative zone.

Unabated selling, mainly in bank, cement and pharma stocks, saw the index drift to lower levels as the day progressed. The index tumbled to a low of 13,568 - down 503 points from the day's open.

The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 389 points at 13,633. The index ended the week with a huge loss of 723 points (5%).

The index dropped the 14K for the first time since January 11, 2007 when the index closed at 13,631.

Losers beat gainers 5:1, i.e there were five declining stocks for a single advancing share - out of 2,653 stocks traded, 2,211 declined, 404 advanced and the rest were unchanged today.

NO GAINERS, ONLY LOSERS

Grasim slumped 6% to Rs 2,271. ACC plunged 5% to Rs 916, and Gujarat Ambuja dropped 3% to Rs 123.

Bharti Airtel tumbled nearly 6% to Rs 756. Wipro and ITC shed around 4.5% each to Rs 623 and Rs 166, respectively.

ICICI Bank, Dr.Reddy's and Reliance Communications slipped over 4% each to Rs 908, Rs 682 and Rs 432, respectively.

HDFC and Hindalco declined 3.5% each to Rs 1,605 and Rs 144, respectively.

'POWER'FUL DEBUT

Power Finance Corporation (PFC) today listed at Rs 104 as against its issue price of Rs 85. The stock slipped a wee bit to touch a low of Rs 103.50, and then rallied to a high of Rs 117. Despite all-round bearishness, the stock ended with a sizzling gain of 31% (Rs 26.55) at Rs 111.55 on Day 1.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

PFC topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 450.80 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 180.40 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 114.30 crore), Globla Broadcast (Rs 102.50 crore) and Firstsource (Rs 89.25 crore).

PFC also led the volume chart with trades of around 4.07 crore shares followed by IFCI (1.67 crore), Firstsource (1.11 crore), Zee News (5.24 lakh) and Alchemist (4.35 lakh).