Global meltdown leads to market crash

A sell-off in Asian markets followed by European markets sent the Sensex tumbling over 600 points for the day. The market opened in the red at 14,585, down 416 points tracking the sharp fall in the US and Asian indices and touched the day's low of 14,345 on relentless selling in banking, metal and capital goods stocks. The banking index closed 5% down as investors turned negative on the financial sector amid fears of global credit squeeze. The Sensex dropped over 10% from the record 15,869 hit on July 24 with foreign funds dumping about $700 million of local stocks in August. The Sensex finally closed with a loss of 4.28% or 643 points at 14,358. The Nifty shed 4.38% or 192 points to close at 4,179.

The market breadth was extremely negative, with the losers outnumbering the gainers in the ratio of 2.19:1. Of the 2,751 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,869 stocks declined, 842 stocks advanced and 40 stocks ended unchanged. All the sectoral indices were battered. Among the major losers-- the BSE Metal index lost 6.51%, the BSE Bankex index dropped 5.42%, the BSE Realty shed 5.56%, the BSE CG index declined by 4.43% and the BSE Oil & Gas index fell 4.37%.

None of the Sensex stocks closed in the green. Among the major losers Tata Steel plummeted by 10.34% at Rs575, Bharti Airtel tanked by 6.63% at Rs801, SBI dropped 5.78% at Rs1,522, Hindalco slumped 5.62% at Rs145, Reliance Communication crumbled by 5.55% at Rs495, ICICI Bank shed 5.17% at Rs832 and Reliance Industries slipped 5.06% at Rs1,739. BHEL at Rs1,602, Reliance Energy at Rs717, HDFC Bank at Rs1,094, L&T at Rs2,319, ONGC at Rs819, ITC at Rs158 and Tata Motors at Rs663 shed over 4% each.

Metal stocks lost heavily. Sterlite tumbled by 8.22% at Rs558, Welspun Gujrat shed 7.27% at Rs225, Shree Precoated Steels lost 5.87% at Rs291 and Hindalco declined by 5.62% at Rs145. The banking counters, too, bore the brunt and fell sharply. Union Bank, Bank Of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Bank Of Baroda, Kotak Bank, Oriental Bank, Canara Bank and Axis Bank shed 6-10% each.

Over 3.12 crore Nagarjuna Fertilisers shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Centurain Bank of Punjab (2.23 crore shares), IKF Technologies (1.43 crore shares), IFCI (1.42 crore shares) and Bella Steel (1.28 crore shares).

IVR Prime Urban Developers was the most actively traded counter on the BSE and registered a turnover of Rs328 crore followed by Reliance Industries (Rs201 crore), Tata Steel (Rs154 crore), DLF (Rs150 crore) and Reliance capital (Rs116 crore).