Panic selling halts resurgence

Panic selling in noon trades triggered a major correction, after the market had witnessed gains of over 60 points in early trades. Continuing with buoyancy, the Sensex resumed with a huge positive gap of 63 points at 15,896. While the market stood firm thereafter, a sudden spurt in selling activity particularly in capital goods, banking, power and technology sectors dragged the index below 15,400 level to the day's low of 15,303. The Sensex finally wrapped the session with losses of 3.06% or 484 points at 15,349, while the Nifty dropped 2.68% or 125 points to close at 4,647.

Although the market fell sharply, market breadth was extremely negative. Of the 2,695 stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 1,823 stocks declined, 809 stocks advanced and 63 stocks ended unchanged. All the indices ended at lower levels. The BSE Bankex led the slump with losses of 4.33% followed by the BSE Bankex index (down 2.93%), the BSE Power index (down 2.81%), the BSE Teck index (down 2.58%). The BSE Auto, FMCG, Oil & Gas, IT, PSU and Realty indices were also down by 2%, while the BSE HC and BSE CD were marginally down.

Sensex led CG pivotals came under sharp hammering. Crompton Greaves tumbled 7.61% at Rs237.80, Alstom Project declined 7.59% at Rs568.30, BHEL moved down 6.89% at Rs1,634, Larsen & Toubro lost 5.74% at Rs2,686 and Praj Industries declined 5.71% at Rs132.20. Among the major losers, HDFC crashed 6.83% at Rs2,275, Mahindra & Mahindra dropped 6% at Rs605.15, Jaiprakash Associates slipped by 5.21% at Rs221.25, Wipro dipped by 4.53% at Rs415.60, Bharti Airtel slumped 4.53% at Rs783.85, ITC fell by 3.46% at Rs200.80 and ICICI Bank was down 3.07% at Rs763.70. Maruti Suzuki, RIL, Cipla and HDFC Bank shed between 2-3% each.

Select index heavyweights bucked the downtrend and ended with decent gains. Ranbaxy Laboratories rose 2.55% at Rs458.25, while Tata Steel flared up 0.17% at Rs660.70. While Hero Honda added 1.25% at Rs758.20, MRF moved up by 1.13% at Rs3,938 and Dabur India added 0.34% at Rs104.65.

Over 2.15 crore Ispat Industries shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Tulsi Extrusion (1.54 crore shares), RNRL (1.47 crore shares), RPL (1.45 crore shares) and IB Securities (0.95 lakh shares).