Market choppy: drops 1.51%

The market surprised the traders with its sharp unexpected recovery in the afternoon and a fall of 217 points towards the close. Despite opening weak in line with its Asian peers, the Sensex recovered from its lows as investors used the sharp fall to pick up the stocks at a bargained price. Earlier in the first half, the market was extremely volatile and slipped around 580 points or over 4% at 13,780. However, sustained buying in Reliance Industries, banking and realty stocks helped the Sensex to erase most of its losses, but relentless selling in pivotal stocks assured that the Sensex remains in the red. The Sensex finally ended the day with a loss of 1.51% or 217 points at 14,142, while the Nifty declined by 1.69% or 71 points to close at 4,108.

The market breadth was extremely weak as the losers outpaced the gainers in the ratio of 2.15:1. Of the 2,719 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,835 stocks declined, 852 stocks advanced and 32 stocks ended unchanged. Except the BSE Realty index, all the sectoral indices slipped sharply. The BSE Metal index dropped 4.74% followed by the BSE IT index (down 2.95%), the BSE PSU index (down 2.78%), the BSE CD index (down 2.41%), the BSE FMEG (down 2.34%) and the BSE Teck index (down 2.23%).

Most of the index heavyweights witnessed heavy correction. Satyam Computers tumbled by 5.81% at Rs440, Tata Steel dropped 5.40% at Rs544, ONGC lost 4.41% at Rs783, Hindalco slumped by 3.65% at Rs140, Tata Motors slipped by 3.34% at Rs641, ITC shed 3% at Rs153, NTPC lost 2.98% at Rs163, Infosys fell by 2.91% at Rs1,855, TCS crumbled by 2.91% at Rs1,056 and ACC dipped 2.84% at Rs952. Other front-line stocks lost between 1-2% each. Select counters, however, bucked the downtrend and ended with gains. Wipro advanced by 1.31% at Rs476 and HDFC moved up by 1.30% at Rs1,910 while Reliance Industries, Reliance Energy and Cipla ended with modest gains.

Metal stocks were hit hard and dropped sharply. JSW Steel crumbled by 7.55% at Rs568, Shree Precoated Steel lost 7.50% at Rs269 and Sterlite Industries shed 7.47% at Rs517. Sail, Hindalco, Welspun Gujarat, Sesa Goa, Hindustan Zinc and Jindal Steel were down over 2-3% each.

Over 4.20 crore Nagarjuna Fertilisers shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Bella Steel (1.96 crore shares), IFCI (1.91 crore shares), Harig Cranks (1.58 crore shares) and Reliance Natural Resources (1.39 crore shares).

Reliance Industries was the most actively traded counter on the BSE and registered a turnover of Rs313 crore followed by Zylog Systems (Rs309 crore), Tata Steel (Rs211 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs205 crore) and SBI (Rs190 crore).