Market sinks on bear hammering

The market went into a complete tailspin as the much-awaited correction shaved nearly 800 points off the Sensex during intra-day trades. Global positive cues like further cooling off of the oil prices failed to lift the sentiment, as investors tracked the falling Asian indices since early trades instead. The Sensex resumed 144 points lower at 16,227 and lost more ground as the trading progressed. The market witnessed a steep fall in early noon trades as selling in heavyweights, Bankex, realty and information technology (IT) dragged the index below the 16,000 mark to the day's low of 15,563. After lingering in negative territory thereafter, the Sensex wrapped up the session at 15,644, down 727 points, while the Nifty shed 208 points to close at 4,735.

However, the market breadth was marginally positive with the gainers outpacing the losers by 1:0.4. Of the 2,699 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,356 stocks advanced, 1,300 stocks declined and 43 stocks ended unchanged. All the sectoral indices took sharp beating. The BSE Bankex index bore the major brunt and crashed 5.89% at 7,718, while the BSE IT index, the BSE Realty index, the BSE Metal index, the BSE Oil& Gas index and the BSE Teck index dropped over 3-5% each.

Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex pack, 26 ended in red. Among the major losers, HDFC tumbled 8.79% at Rs2,383.75, ICICI Bank slumped 7.79% at Rs770.10, DLF crumbled 7.07% at Rs646.50 and TCS plunged 6.80% at Rs810.90. Infosys dropped 6.30% at Rs1,430, Wipro declined 6.32% at Rs425.30, Reliance Energy fell 6.19% at Rs1,251 and Hindalco moved down 6.10% at Rs164.75. Other frontline stocks also dropped over 1-5% each.

In the Bankex pack, Yes Bank tanked 7.61% at Rs168.75, Bank of India plummeted 7.11% at Rs252.90, Kotak Bank slumped 6.35% at Rs628.55 and HDFC Bank lost 5.79% at Rs1,319. Bank of Baroda, Centurion Bank of Punjab, Oriental Bank of India, SBI, Allahabad Bank, Punjab National Bank, UBI and Andhra Bank crashed over 3.5% each.

Over 2.33 crore Ispat Industries shares changed hands on the BSE followed by RNRL (1.32 crore shares), Orchid Chemicals (1.17 crore shares), IFCI (1.13 crore shares) and RPL (1.02 crore shares).

Valuewise, Reliance Capital clocked a turnover of Rs324 crore followed by GSS America (Rs289 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs257 crore), Orchid Chemicals (Rs187 crore) and RPL (Rs162 crore).