Bears strike back, drag Sensex to17,600

The Sensex recorded one of the biggest crash of the year and nose-dived over 2,000 points or 12% during intra-day trades, making India the worst performing markets in the Asian region. The heavy downfall in the market was triggered mainly by the weakness in global indices and the offloading of equities by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in the past few sessions in the domestic market. The mood was extremely bearish since the early trades. After resuming 94 points lower over its last close at 18,920, the Sensex witnessed a major sell-off as the trading progressed. A major correction in metal, realty, oil, public sector and power stocks saw the Sensex plunge deep into the red in late trades and slump below the 17,000 mark to touch the intra-day low of 16,951, down 12.16%. The Sensex, however, recovered towards the close and pared some of its losses to finally sign off the session with a loss of 7.41% or 1,408 points at 17,605. The Nifty crumbled 8.61% or 491 points to close at 5,214.

All the sectoral indices were hammered. Among the major losers, the BSE Metal Index dropped by 13.30%, the BSE Realty Index shed 12.83%, the BSE Oil & Gas Index declined by 11.95%, the BSE Power index slipped 10.94% and the BSE PSU index fell 10.67%. In the broader market, losers outnumbered gainers by 19.26:1. Of the 2,811 stocks traded 2,657 stocks declined, 139 stocks advanced and 15 stocks remained unchanged.

All the 30 stocks in the Sensex basket ended with steep losses. Among the major losers Reliance Energy tanked 16.38% at Rs1,776, ACC slumped 15.85% at Rs728, Bajaj Auto tumbled 15.21% at Rs2,064, NTPC crashed 14.15% at Rs206 and Reliance Communications lost 12.71% at Rs613. Hindalco at Rs166, DLF at Rs904, Grasim at Rs3,025, Reliance Industries at Rs2,544 and Tata Motors at Rs654 also crashed by 9-10% each. Other front-line stocks also shed around 5-8% each.

Over 2.75 crore RNRL shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Ispat Industries (2.55 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (2.46 crore shares), Tata Teleservices (1.52 crore shares) and IFCI (1.48 crore shares).

Valuewise, Reliance Industries registered a turnover of Rs663 crore followed by RNRL (Rs491 crore), Reliance Energy (Rs466 crore), Reliance Petroleum (Rs456 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs340 crore).