Sensex plummets 209 points

The market witnessed extreme volatility during the day. After a firm opening at 16,666, 141 points above its previous close of 16,525, the Sensex made significant strides on the back of an extended buying and touched the day's high of 16,666. However, the market failed to hold on to its gains and drifted into negative territory in noon trades. The market took a sharp dip in afternoon trades from its initial surge and continued to move down thereafter, as shares across the sectors witnessed relentless selling pressure. Along with selling in heavyweights, major correction in auto, Bankex and oil & gas stocks dragged the index to an intra-day low of 16,196. The Sensex finally signed off the session with losses of 1.27% or 209 points at 16,316, while the Nifty tumbled down 83 points at 4,835.

The breadth of the market was extremely negative. Of the 2,760 stocks traded on the BSE 1,538 stocks declined, 1,114 stocks advanced and 108 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE Auto index shed 3.31% at 4,410 followed by the BSE Bankex index (down 2.71% at 7,718.81), the BSE Oil & Gas index (down 1.92% at 10,571) and the BSE Power index (down 1.79% at 3,048.84).

Of the 30 stocks trading in the Sensex basket, only six stocks managed to end in green. Among the major losers, Tata Motors tumbled 8.22% at Rs582.55, Ambuja Cement plunged 6.05% at Rs97.80, Mahindra & Mahindra slumped 5.52% at Rs606.20, SBI dropped 3.62% at Rs1,464.30, Hindalco shed 3.54% at Rs189.60, HDFC lost 3.24% at Rs2,433.20 and NTPC declined 3.03% at Rs171.40. Other frontline stocks, too, were down by around 1-3% each. Larsen & Toubro however bucked the downtrend and rose 6.64% at Rs2,889.10, while Reliance Communications at Rs573, Cipla at Rs213.95, Satyam Computer Services at Rs526.25, Ranbaxy Laboratories at Rs504.60 and Wipro at Rs512.50 were up around 1% each.

Over 5.42 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Chambal Fertiliser (2.48 crore shares), Nagarjuna fertilisers (1.91 crore shares), Aishwarya Telecom (1.16 crore shares) and Spice Tele (66.22 lakh shares).