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Monday, January 21, 2008

Carnage on the street; Sensex tanks 1408 points


The market extended losses for sixth straight day in highly volatile trade led by setback in stocks across the globe. Both the niche indices cracked below key physcological levels. The BSE Sensex registered its biggest single day point fall.

The sharp fall was triggered by setback in global markets, selling by foreign institutional investors and margin calls after a proposed US stimulus package failed to soothe fears the US will tip into recession.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 1408.35 points or 7.41% to 17,605.35, its biggest single-day point fall on a closing basis. The market came-off lower level after trading was briefly halted after the steep fall. The Sensex hit a low of 16,951.50 in late-afternoon trade. At the day’s low, the Sensex had declined 2062.22 points, the biggest intra-day fall in Sensex ever.

On a closing basis, Sensex’s previous biggest single day point fall was on 18 May 2006, when it had plunged 826 points or 6.75% to 11,391 spooked by a government circular on taxing investment gains and heavy FII selling.

The broader CNX S&P Nifty declined 496.50 or 8.70% to 5,208.80. It had slipped to low of 4,977.10 in late trade. Nifty January 2008 futures settled at 5,203, a discount of 5.80 points as compared to spot closing of 5,208.80

With today’s fall, the BSE Sensex has eroded 3601.42 points or 16.98% from a record high of 21,206.77 hit on 10 January 2008.

Small and mid-cap stocks were battered brutally. The BSE Mid-Cap index tumbled 1011.72 points or 11.38% to 7,881.99 while BSE Small-Cap index slipped 1248.79 points or 10.27% to 10,911.66. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex

All the sectoral indices on BSE registered steep losses. BSE FMCG Index (down 5.62% at 2,173.21), Bankex (down 6.95% to 10,582.01), BSE Capital Goods index (down 6.80% at 17,087.82), BSE IT index (down 5.73% to 3,573.25), outperformed the Sensex.

BSE Power Index (down 10.94% at 3,828.81), BSE Auto index (down 9.39% at 4,664.53) and BSE Realty (down 12.83% to 10,479.87), BSE Metal index (down 13.30% at 14,963.38), BSE PSU index (down 10.67% to 8,629.40), BSE Health Care index (down 8.03% at 3,701.62), BSE Oil and Gas index (down 11.95% at 11,089.33), BSE Consumer Durables index (down 8.43% to 5,351.63), BSE TecK index (down 7.58% to 3,214.54), underperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth was extremely weak. On BSE, 2658 a declined as compared to just 140 that rose. A total of 14 shares remained unchanged.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 9299 crore as compared to Rs 8,801.38 crore on Friday, 18 January 2008.

Turnover in NSE’s futures & options segment advanced to Rs 82241.65 crore by as compared to Rs 72852.64 crore on Friday, 18 January 2008.

All the members of 30-share BSE Sensex pack settled with losses.

India’s second biggest power utility company in terms of net profit Reliance Energy plunged 16.38% to Rs 1,776.05. It was the top loser from Sensex pack.

ACC (down 14.53% to Rs 739), NTPC (down 15.20% to Rs 203.15), Reliance Communications (down 13.84% to Rs 605), DLF (down 10.15% to Rs 903.70), Hindalco Industries (down 10.32% to Rs 165.95) and Bajaj Auto (down 15.21% to Rs 2064.35), collapsed.

ICICI Bank, the country’s largest private sector bank in terms of net profit, declined 5.80% to Rs 1,173.20. ICICI Bank reported 35.2% rise in net profit to Rs 1230.21 crore on 32.50% rise in operating income to Rs 10338.36 crore in Q3 December 2007 over Q3 December 2006. The results were announced on Saturday, 19 January 2008. Meanwhile, ICICI Securities (I-Sec), the broking and investment-banking arm of ICICI Bank, is set to hit the market in six months.

India’a largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries was down 9.12% to Rs 2,544.20.

India’s largest pharma company in terms of sales, Ranbaxy Laboratories which held firm in early trade, also succumbed to selling pressure later in a weak market. It declined 6.06% to Rs 363.20. The company today said it had settled terms with GlaxoSmithKline on a possible patent litigation for a generic version of the firm's Imitrex tablets. Under the terms of the settlement, Ranbaxy may sell a generic version, sumatriptan succinate tablets, in multiple strengths in the United States from December 2008, it said in a statement to the BSE.

India’s largest telecom services provider in terms of market capitalisation, Bharti Airtel slipped 5.22% to Rs 828.25. It signed a $150 million six-year agreement with global IT major IBM for implementation of IT systems to launch differentiated services in broadband, media, IPTV and DTH segments.

India’s fourth largest software services exporter, Satyam Computers advanced 4.67% to Rs 390, and was the lone gainer from 30-member Sensex pack. The company reported 28.58% rise in net profit to Rs 433.63 crore on 35.58% rise in total income to Rs 2266.05 crore in Q2 September 2007 over Q2 September 2006.

Satyam Computer for fiscal 2008, under US GAAP, expects revenue between $2,119 million and $ 2,122 million, implying a growth rate of 45% to 45.2% over fiscal 2007. Seperately, the company said it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Bridge Strategy Group, a Chicago based management consulting firm.

India's biggest oil explorer in terms of market capitalisation Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) slipped 7.89% to Rs 1,114.05. The company posted 6.46% fall in net profit to Rs 4366.54 on 1.75% fall in total income to Rs 15983.81 crore in Q3 December 2007 over Q3 December 2006.

Among side counters, Wire & Wireless India (down 31% to Rs 51.20), IVR Prime (down 29.16% to Rs 255.35), Parsvnath Developers (down 28.85% to Rs 292.80), Essar Oil (down 31.55% to Rs 185.75), Bajaj Hindustan (down 28.08% to Rs 197.85), and Sasken Communications (down 28.54% to Rs 197.40), tumbled.

Reliance pack dominated turnover charts on BSE. Reliance Industries was the top traded counter on BSE with total turnover of Rs 663.60 crore followed by Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 491.70 crore), Reliance Energy (Rs 466.40 crore), Reliance Petroleum (Rs 456.80 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 340.50 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources was the volume topper on BSE with total volume of 2.75 crore shares followed by Ispat Industries (2.55 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (2.47 crore shares), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (1.53 crore shares) and IFCI (1.49 crore shares).

Power Finance Corporation declined 10% to Rs 208.75. It reported 50% rise in net profit to Rs 320.49 on 36.70% rise in operating income to Rs 1300.56 crore in Q3 December 2007 over Q3 December 2006.

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services slipped 12.11% to Rs 278.05 following its plans to sell 1.09 crore shares at Rs 380 per share to TPG-Axon (Mauritius) and Standard Chartered Private Equity (Mauritius).

Idea Cellular tumbled 11.53% to Rs 120.25. It posted 108.6% spurt in net profit to Rs 237.19 in on 48.80% rise in total income to Rs 1708.09 crore in Q3 December 2007 over Q3 December 2006.

Indian markets today underperformed their global peers. European markets, which opened after Indian markets, were in red. Key indices in United Kingdom (down 2.17% to 5,773.80), France (down 2.88% to 4,945.5) and Germany (down 3.06% to 7,090.38) declined.

Asian markets extended early losses. Hong Kong's Hang Seng (down 5.49% at 23,818.86), South Korea's Seoul Composite (down 2.95% at 1,683.56), Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted (down 0.91% at 8,110.20), China’s Shanghai Composite (down 5.14% to 4,914.43), and Japan’s Nikkei 225 index (down 3.86% to 13,325.98), edged lower

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 59.91 points, or 0.49%, at 12,099.30, its lowest close in 10 months. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 8.06 points, or 0.6%, at 1,325.19, a 16-month low. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 6.88 points, or 0.29%, at 2,340.02, a 10-month low.

US president George Bush on Friday, 18 January 2008, called for a package of tax cuts and other measures totaling around 1% of US gross domestic product, or up to $150 billion, after weak recent reports on employment, retail sales, factory activity, and housing construction this month suggested the United States -- the world's largest economy --may be heading into recession. Under consideration in the package announced by Bush are ideas like tax rebates, incentives for businesses, and extensions of unemployment insurance.