Sensex tanks 438 points

The market took a sharp dip after a positive opening and continued to move down, as shares across sectors witnessed substantial selling pressure amid worries over the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s move to restrict participatory notes. The market opened with a positive gap of 34 points at 18032 and saw considerable volatility through the day. The selling pressure in the front-line stocks kept the capital goods, metal, realty, and oil stocks in the red that dragged down the index to an intra-day low of 17226. The Sensex ended the session with a loss of 2.44% or 438 points at 17560 while the Nifty tumbled 2.54% or 136 points to 5215.

The breadth of the market was extremely negative. Of the 2,767 stocks traded on the BSE, 2,186 stocks declined, 548 stocks advanced and 33 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE CG Index shed 4.41% at 15,429 followed by the BSE Metal Index (down 3.66% at 14480), the BSE Realty Index (down 3.51% at 9054) and the BSE FMCG Index (down 3.05% at 2022).

Among the Sensex stocks, few managed to close in positive territory. Reliance Energy tumbled 16.22% at Rs1,333; Hindalco plunged 6.58% at Rs175; Maruti Udyog slumped 6.47% at Rs1,074; BHEL dropped 5.99% at Rs2,052; Bharti Airtel shed 5% at Rs968; M&M lost 4.50% at Rs728; and ITC declined 4.40% at Rs175. The other front-line stocks were also down 1-4% each. However, Reliance Communication bucked the trend and gained 2.21% at Rs727; Bajaj Auto added 2.07% at Rs2,512; Tata Steel moved up by 1.86% at Rs852; ONGC surged 1.35% at Rs1,109 and Infosys advanced by 1.04% at Rs1,908 while Wipro and Dr Reddy's Lab were marginally up at Rs501 and Rs614 respectively.

Over 3 crore Saamaya Biotech shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Power Grid Corporation (2.72 crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources (2.62 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (1.63 crore shares) and Tata Teleservices (1.59 crore shares).

United Spirits registered a turnover of Rs782 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Energy (Rs594 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs582 crore), HDFC (Rs542 crore) and Reliance Communication (Rs520 crore).