Selling spree continues

The bear hammering continued unabated in the market, with the index crashing below the 13,000 level amid weakness in global indices, slump in the overseas commodities markets and continuing exodus of foreign institutional investment (FII) money from the domestic markets. Keeping with its southward journey, the Sensex started the day with a negative gap of 65 points at 13,482 and shed another 428 points to slip below the 13,000 level in the early trades to touch the day's low of 13,054. The market however moved above 13,200 for the better part of the session with a negative bias. Sustained selling pressure towards the close saw the Sensex slump below 13,100 and end 3.28% or 445 points lower at 13,102, while Nifty dropped 125 points at 3,985.

The breadth of the market was extremely negative. Of the 2,673 stocks traded on the BSE, 2,169 stocks declined, while only 445 stocks advance. 59 stocks remained unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE FMCG ended positive while other indices fell around 0.96% each. The BSE Realty was the major loser and crumbled by 6.33% followed by BSE Metal (down 4.76%), BSE Bankex (down 4.27%), BSE CG (down 4.10%), BSE Power (down 3.47%) and BSE IT (down 3.39%).

Barring State Bank of India, ITC, Hindustan Unilever and ACC, the remaining 27 Sensex stocks ended in a negative territory. Sliding sharply Ranbaxy Laboratories crumbled by 8.04% at Rs272.40, Sterlite industries plunged 6.28% at Rs447.20, ICICI Bank dropped 5.83% at Rs561.25, Grasim Industries slumped by 5.72% at Rs1760.50, Hindalco declined by 5.17% at Rs99.10, Mahindra & Mahindra shed 5.06% at Rs530.50, BHEL fell by 5.03% at Rs1538.20 and DLF lost 5.01% at Rs369.50. Other front-line stocks also bore the brunt of the selling pressure and declined around 2-3% each.

Over 96.73 lakh shares of IFCI changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (87 lakh shares), Anant Raj Industries (85 lakh shares), Sesa Goa (82 lakh shares) and Idea Cellular (65 lakh shares).