Sensex drops 1.54% amidst high drama

The market expected carnage today against the backdrop of weak Asian indices and yesterday's crash, but the Sensex recovered most of its losses on substantial buying in heavyweights, information technology and consumer durable stocks. The Sensex gyrated over 300 points amid high volatility. After crashing in early trades the Sensex touched the day's low of 14,571, down over 500 points to its previous close at 15,100. However, the market witnessed a steady to firm buying in the afternoon and the Sensex rallied sharply, erasing most of its earlier losses. Finally, the Sensex ended 1.54% lower or down 232 points at 14,868 whereas the Nifty was down 1.59% or 70 points at 4,333.

The market breadth was weak, with losers outnumbering gainers by 1.57:1 on the BSE. Of the 2,662 stocks traded on the BSE 1,597 stocks declined, 1,016 stocks advanced and 49 stocks ended unchanged. Barring the BSE IT index, most of the BSE sectoral indices continued to trade weak and dropped around 1-2% each. The BSE Bankex Index was the major loser and lost 2.53% while the BSE Realty Index shed 2.47%.

Majority of the 30-Sensex stocks ended in the red. Among the major losers Bharti Airtel shed 3.61% at Rs838, HDFC plunged 3% at Rs1,955, ONGC crumbled 2.94% at Rs841, NTPC crashed 2.92% at Rs165, Hindalco slipped by 2.85% at Rs152, ICICI Bank tumbled 2.84% at Rs865, M&M lost 2.69% at Rs670, Reliance Communication dropped 2.69% at Rs522, SBI slumped 2.52% at Rs1,608 and Tata Steel fell by 2.41% at Rs637. Select front-line counters rebounded from their intra-day lows and ended in the green. Satyam Computer rose 2.63% at Rs479 and Bajaj Auto advanced 1.49% at Rs2,325, while Tata Motors, Infosys, Wipro and Grasim gained marginally.

Banking stocks witnessed a steep fall. Kotak Bank plummeted 4.22% at Rs735 while Fedral Bank crashed 2.93% at Rs329, Canara Bank slipped by 2.90% at Rs268, PNB fell 2.85% at Rs498 and Axis Bank was down 2.76% at Rs590.

Over 3.72 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resourses (1.52 crore shares), Nagajuna Fertilizers (1.38 crore shares), Harig Cranks (99.77 lakh shares) and JP Hydro (95.22 lakh shares).

Value wise, Orbit Corporation registered a turnover of Rs317 crore followed by IFCI (Rs232 crore), DLF (Rs171 crore), Reliance Industries Ventures (Rs165 crore) and Omax (Rs138 crore).