Another brutal day on Dalal Street

The market crashed by 4.30%, in tune with other major global indices, as concerns of hike in crude oil and inflation played on investor sentiment. After gaining over 200 points in yesterday's trades, the Sensex resumed 294 points lower at 14,1428 and tanked another 368 points to touch the day's low of 13,760 on relentless selling in Bankex, Auto, Power, and overall stocks. The Sensex managed to recover 42 points in late trades, but still ended with losses of 620 points at 13,802. The Nifty shed 4.12% or 179 points to close at 4,137.

The market breadth was extremely negative. Of the 2,706 stocks traded on the BSE, 2,051 stocks declined, 601 stocks advanced and 54 stocks ended unchanged. All the sectoral indices were battered. Among the major losers, the BSE Bankex index lost 5.34%, the BSE Auto index dropped 5.26%, the BSE Power shed 4.87%, the BSE Metal index declined by 4.53% and the BSE Realty index fell 4.45%.

All the Sensex stocks ended in the red. Among the major losers Tata Motors plummeted 8.24% at Rs445.05, HDFC tanked 8.15% at Rs2,028.15, Wipro dropped 7.78% at Rs436.60, Reliance Infrastructure slumped 7.72% at Rs876, Mahindra& Mahindra crumbled by 7.61% at Rs503, Ambuja Cement dropped 7.14% at Rs80 and Jaiprakash Associates shed 7.01% at Rs141.55. ICICI Bank, DLF, SBI, Maruti Suzuki India, ONGC, Grasim Industries, Reliance Communications, Satyam Computer Services, Infosys, Hindalco and Tata Steel shed over 6-4% each.

Over 2.28 crore Bafna Pharma shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Petroleum (1.63 crore shares), Chambal Fertilisers (1.16 crore shares), Niraj Cement (1.09 crore shares) and Reliance Natural Resources (1.07 crore shares).