Sensex cools, drops 292 points

The Sensex witnessed the awaited correction today, as meltdown in major global indices turned the domestic market upside down. After rallying for the past few sessions, the Sensex lost 292 points on sustained selling in heavyweights, metal and banking stocks. The market began on a positive note at 15,577 and touched the day's high of 15,580 (only two points higher than the opening), but remained range-bound as trading progressed. After slipping below 15,300 level in noon trades, the Sensex plunged towards the close on unabated selling in metal, banking and information technology stocks, touching the day's low of 15,125. The Sensex signed off the session with a loss of 1.88% or 292 points at 15,223. The Nifty tumbled by 1.51% or 68 points to close at 4,552.

The market breadth was extremely weak. Of the 2,728 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,558 stocks declined, 1,094 stocks advanced and 76 stocks ended unchanged. All the 13 sectoral indices were hammered today. BSE Metal Index led the slump and crashed by 3.62% at 12,661. BSE Bankex was down 3.44% at 7,437, BSE IT Index lost 2.84% at 3,772 and the BSE Teck Index dropped 2.44% at 3,028. Other sectoral indices slipped by around 0.75-2% each. However, BSE Oil & Gas Index and BSE FMCG Index ended with steady gains.

Out of 30 Sensex stocks, 25 stocks ended lower, with metal and banking stocks taking a strong beating. Among the metal stocks, Tata Steel plummeted by 5.71% at Rs607.95 and Jindal Steel crashed by 5.11% at Rs1,993.60. Banking majors IDBI slumped 5.68% at Rs88 and Axis Bank lost nearly 5.03% at Rs721.55. Index heavyweight Maruti Suzuki India plunged 4.58% at Rs678.05, JP Associates shed 4.46% at Rs188.55, Sterlite Industries declined by 4.46% at Rs597.05, ICICI Bank slipped by 4.20% at Rs738.40 and HDFC fell by 4.03% at Rs2,466.60.

Over 2.53 crore shares of Landmark Property changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.70 crore shares), Chambal Fertilisers (1.60 crore shares), Nagarjuna Fertilisers (1.20 crore shares) and Kashyaap Technologies (91.77 lakh shares).