Sensex nosedives on panicky selling

BNP Paribas SA, France's biggest bank, closed its three funds on concerns over US subprime mortgage losses and markets in Europe fell sharply, dampening sentiment back home. London's FTSE 100 index declined nearly 1% while Germany's DAX index shed over 1% and France's CAC 40 index was down 1.55%. The market crashed nearly 480 points from its day's high to touch the intra-day low of 15,062. The fall in European indices and a sharp fall in the global commodities markets played on investors’ sentiment. After adding over 375 points in yesterday's trades, the Sensex resumed 144 points higher at 15,452 and gained around 90 points to touch the day's high of 15,542 on sustained buying in banking and metal stocks. But, the index slipped on across-the-board selling to close at 15,100, down 1.36% or 208 points. The Nifty shed 1.32% or 59 points to close at 4,403.

The market breadth was negative, with the losers outnumbering the gainers. Of the 2,670 stocks traded on the BSE, 2,611 stocks declined, 1,012 stocks advanced and 47 stocks ended unchanged. All the sectoral indices were battered. Among the major losers the BSE CD index lost 2.47%, the BSE Oil & Gas index dropped 1.96%, the BSE FMCG shed 1.73%, the BSE PSU index declined by 1.64%, the BSE IT index and the BSE Teck index fell by 1.55% each.

Excluding the few, most of the Sensex stocks ended in the red. Among the major losers Hindalco plummeted by 3.61% at Rs156, SBI tanked by 3.30% at Rs1,650, Reliance Energy dropped 3.22% at Rs758, Ranbaxy slumped 2.66% at Rs372, Satyam computers crumbled by 2.55% at Rs467 and HDFC shed 2.44% at Rs2,016. ONGC at Rs867, ACC at Rs1,001, Grasim at Rs2,919 and ITC at Rs164 shed over 2% each.

Over 1.54 crore IKF Technologies shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IFCI (1.31 crore shares), RNRL (1.24 crore shares), Omaxe (1.21 crore shares) and Nagarjuna Fertilizers (1.07 crore shares).

Omaxe was the most actively traded counter on the BSE and registered a turnover of Rs443 crore followed by Orbit Corporation (Rs341 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs198 crore), SBI (Rs98 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs93 crore).