Market takes heavy pounding

Indices were off highs as traders booked profits on every rise. Banking shares were worst hit followed by capital goods and tech stocks. However, realty and PSU stocks remained strong. The Sensex resumed on a positive note at 19,690, 99 points above its last close of 19,591 and by mid-morning trades accumulated gains of 328 points on all-round buying to touch the day's high of 19,919. Although the index managed to trade above 19,750 till afternoon, unabated selling dragged it below the 19,350 level towards the close. After slipping over 581 points from the day's high, the Sensex finally dropped 0.97% and was down 190 points for the day at 19,401. The Nifty shed 1.04% and was down 61 points at 5,787.

The market breadth was extremely negative. Of the 2,782 stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 1,597 stocks declined, 1,116 stocks advanced and 69 stocks remained unchanged. Barring the BSE Realty index and the BSE PSU index, most of the sectoral indices closed in negative territory. The BSE Banking index was down 2.01% at 10,787 followed by the BSE CG index (down 1.77% at 19,697), the BSE Teck index (down 1.60% at 3,838), the BSE Metal index (down 1.12% at 17,206) and the BSE Oil & Gas index (down 1.01% at 11,389).

Barring a few, the index stocks came under heavy selling pressure. Reliance Communication led the slump and crashed by 4.35% at Rs745. Among the other major laggards, L&T tumbled by 3.77% at Rs4,126, Bharti Airtel dropped 2.52% at Rs918, ICICI Bank slumped 2.36% at Rs1,241, Satyam Computer fell 2.34% at Rs453, Tata Motors declined by 2.24% at Rs723 and Maruti Suzuki lost 2.24% at Rs723. However, few frontline stocks bucked the downtrend. Hindalco rose 4.19% at Rs191, Bajaj Auto gained 2.49% at Rs2,455, BHEL surged 2.29% at Rs2,724, Dr Reddy's Lab added 1.99% at Rs613 and ACC moved up by 1.34% at Rs1,022.

Over 7.62 crore Reliance Petroleum shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (7.22 crore shares), Tata Teleservices (1.96 crore shares), Power Grid Corporation (1.81 crore shares), and Ispat Industries (1.73 crore shares).

Value-wise Reliance Petroleum registered a turnover of Rs1,845 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (Rs1315 crore), Reliance Energy (Rs372 crore), Power Grid Corporation (Rs287 crore) and HDFC (Rs211 crore).