Global weakness drags market down

The market went into a major correction following weak trend in Asian markets, largely driven by consumer inflation figures released by the US. Presence of strong bullish sentiment helped Sensex resume marginally above its previous close, despite a sharp slump across international markets. But, across-the-board selling saw the Sensex shed over 380 points by afternoon. Thereafter, the market showed no signs of respite as widespread selling in metal, realty, oil, and power stocks dragged the index below the 19,200 mark to touch the day's low of 19,177. The Sensex finally ended the session with a loss of 770 points at 19,261. The Nifty, too, reeled under selling pressure and lost 271 points to close at 5,777.

Breadth of the market was negative, with losers outpacing gainers on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Of the 2,954 stocks traded on BSE, 1,944 stocks declined, 995 stocks advanced and 15 stocks remained unchanged. All the sectoral indices on the BSE were hammered. The BSE Metal index was the worst hit and tanked 7.28% at 18,325 followed by the BSE Realty index (down 5.65% at 11,699), the BSE PSU index (down 5.63% at 9,511) and the BSE Oil & Gas index (down 5.13% at 12,315), while other sectoral indices lost over 2-4% each.

Barring HLL, index stocks bore the brunt of heavy selling. DLF led the slump and crashed by 7.53% at Rs944. Among the other major laggards NTPC tumbled by 7.30% at Rs229, Tata Steel dropped 6.15% at Rs824, HDFC slumped 5.93% at Rs2,878, and ONGC fell 5.84% at Rs1,166. Tata Motors declined by 5.80% at Rs701 and Hindalco lost 5.69% at Rs201. Other major front-line stocks shed 2-5% each. However, HLL bucked the downtrend and rose 0.76% at Rs219.

Metal stocks lost significantly on relentless selling. JSW Steel dropped 12.98% at Rs1,164, Jindal Saw shed 10.06% at Rs930, Jindal Steel tumbled by 9.57% at Rs14,364, Sterlite Industries declined by 8.45% at Rs976, Shree Precoated Steel slipped by 7.87% at Rs367 and SAIL lost 7.20% at Rs260.

Over 5.05 crore G V Films shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IFCI (3.97 crore shares), Harig Cranks (3.80 crore shares), Ispat Industries (3.77 crore shares) and Bella Steel (2.60 crore shares).

Valuewise, IFCI registered a turnover of Rs458 crore on the BSE followed by Ispat Industries (Rs309 crore), Kolte Patil Developers (Rs287 crore), HDFC (Rs204 crore) and Reliance Petroleum (Rs196 crore).