Sensex nosedives on panic selling

The market crashed by over 1,428 points from the day's high amid panic selling, pulling the front-line stocks to their day's low. Banking stocks were the worst hit followed by metal and oil & gas stocks. After slipping by over 300 points in yesterday's trades, the Sensex resumed 111 points higher at 18,827 and rallied sharply to touch another record high of 19199, up 483 points from yesterday's close, on sustained buying in front-line stocks. But, the panic selling towards the close dragged the index to its day's low of 17771. The index ended the session with a loss of 717 points or 3.83% at 17998. The Nifty tumbled 3.75% or 208 points to close at 5351.

The market breadth was negative, with the losers outnumbering the gainers in the ratio of 1.65:1. Of the 2,822 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,730 stocks declined, 1,043 stocks advanced and 49 stocks ended unchanged. All the sectoral indices were battered. Among the major losers the BSE Bankex Index lost 5.96%, the BSE Realty Index shed 4.56%, the BSE Metal Index dropped 4.39%, the BSE PSU Index fell 4.26% and the BSE CG Index slipped by 4.07%.

Excluding select IT and pharma stocks most of the Sensex stocks ended in the red. Among the major losers, ACC plummeted by 13.86% at Rs1,036, Reliance Energy tanked by 9.71% at Rs1,591, SBI dropped 8.26% at Rs1,677, Bharti Airtel slumped 7.67% at Rs1,019, ICICI Bank crumbled by 6.99% at Rs1,039 and NTPC shed 5.57% at Rs209. However, TCS, Wipro, Cipla, Satyam Computer, Dr Reddy's Lab, HLL and Ranbaxy managed to close in the green with gains of over 0.50-2%.

Banking stocks came under selling pressure and lost heavily. SBI tumbled by 8.26% at Rs1,677, Union Bank shed 7.45% at Rs154, ICICI Bank lost 6.99% at Rs1,039 and BOI declined by 6.88% at Rs278. Yes Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank Of Baroda and HDFC Bank crumbled by 5-6% each.

Over 4.78 crore Reliance Natural Resources shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Power Grid Corporation (3.59 crore shares), Tata Teleservices (3 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (2.33 crore shares) and IFCI (1.13 crore shares).

Reliance Industries was the most actively traded counter on the BSE and registered a turnover of Rs714 crore followed by Reliance Energy (Rs627 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs626 crore), Power Grid Corporation (Rs514 crore) and Reliance Natural Resources (Rs482 crore).