Free fall continues

Nervousness gripped the market for the fifth consecutive session, as selling pressure since early trades saw the index remain weak throughout the trading session. Though the Sensex resumed at 17,021, 60 points below its previous close and moved up to touch an early high of 17,126 on selective buying, the market soon snapped gains due to selling pressure. As correction continued unabated, the index tumbled below the 16,700 mark to touch an intra-day low of 16,679 by end of day. While the market languished in negative territory all through the noon trades, the Sensex signed off the session with losses of 344 points at 16,737. The Nifty also ended in red at 4,983, down 99 points.

The market breadth was weak. Of the 2,784 stocks traded on the BSE, 2,020 stocks declined, 703 stocks advanced and 61 stocks ended unchanged. Barring the BSE FMCG index, all the sectoral indices ended lower. The BSE Oil & Gas index fell 4.71%, the BSE Realty index dipped 2.95%, the BSE Bankex index shed 2.78% and the BSE PSU index was down 2.03%.

Among the draggers, Jaiprakash Associates dropped 6.60% at Rs251.30, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) shed 5.19% at Rs2,527.65, Reliance Energy tumbled 4.45% at Rs1,332.05, ACC declined 4.20% at Rs712 and HDFC Bank was down 3.74% at Rs1,451.95. State Bank of India at Rs1,675.70, Cipla at Rs205.60, HDFC at Rs2,644.70, Tata Consultancy Services at Rs917.45 were down around 2.79% each.

Select index heavyweights managed to register decent gains. Bharti Airtel rose 1.76% at Rs842.20, ITC gained 1.51% at Rs218.30, Wipro scaled up 0.81% at Rs501.20, Satyam Computer Services added 0.49% at Rs473.40, Grasim Industries jumped by 0.35% at Rs2,340 and ONGC advanced 0.04% at Rs1,028.80.

Oil & Gas stocks came under sharp hammering. Essar Oil slumped 9.45% at Rs251.15, Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL) lost 8.03% at Rs181.05, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) declined 5.86% at Rs106.80 and RIL was down 5.19% at Rs2,527.65. Aban Offshore, Gail India, BPCL, Cairn India, Indiana Oil Corporation (IOC) and Hindustan Petrochemical Ltd (HPCL) dipped 1.50-4% each.

Select fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) stocks attracted buying support. Nestle rose 3.32% at Rs1,812.30, ITC moved up 1.51% at Rs218.30, Marico flared up 0.84% at Rs66.10 and Godrej gained 0.81% at Rs137.20. While REI Agro added 0.58% at Rs1,600, Britania was up 0.37% at Rs1,370.

Over 5.37 crore Aishwarya shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IFCI (2.81 crore shares), Ispat Industries (1.56 crore shares), RPL (1.55 crore shares) and RNRL (1.21 crore shares).

Aiswarya clocked huge turnover of over 502 crore followed by RPL (Rs291 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs283 crore), RIL (Rs268 crore) and IFCI (Rs173 crore).