Market slumps on weak global cues

The market went into a correction mode and remained in the negative territory all through the session. Weak global markets and rising crude prices weighed on the sentiment. Despite resuming 33 points above its previous close, the Sensex went into a major correction mode on account of selling in heavyweights, banks, information technology, and oil stocks. The index slipped below 19,600 mark by afternoon and a strong bout of selling towards the close saw the Sensex touch the day's low of 19,502. However, select buying towards the close saw the Sensex pare some losses and end the session at 19,591, down 1.93% or 385 points, while the Nifty shed 85 points or 1.43% and closed at 5,847.

The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,812 stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 1,433 stocks advanced, 1,321 stocks declined, and 58 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE Bankex index shed 2.08% at 11,008, while the BSE Oil & Gas index declined 1.97% at 11,506. The BSE CD index and the BSE Realty were only gainers and moved up around 0.5%.

Select heavyweights declined sharply on strong selling pressure. ONGC tanked 4.91% at Rs1,299, ICICI Bank dropped 4.49% at Rs1,271, L&T fell 3.89% at Rs4,287, Infosys shed 2.72% at Rs1,856, Maruti Suzuki lost 2.53% at Rs995, ACC declined 2.36% at Rs1,008, ITC dipped 2.34% at Rs171 and HDFC Bank slumped by 2.32% at Rs1,718. Among the select gainers Bharti Airtel advanced by 5.29% at Rs942, Cipla added 1.84% at Rs177, while NTPC and Satyam Computer closed with marginal gains.

Over 7.96 crore Reliance Natural Resources shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Petroleum (3.17 crore shares), JP Hydro (1.69 crore shares), Tata Teleservices (1.54 crore shares) and NOCIL (1.10 crore shares).

Value-wise Reliance Natural Resources registered a turnover of Rs1,345 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs868 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs440 crore), Reliance Energy (Rs299 crore) and L&T (Rs213 crore).