Global meltdown weighs heavy

A sell-off in Asian markets followed by that in the European markets sent the Sensex tumbling over 580 points for the day. The market opened in the red at 12,900, down 156 points, tracking a sharp fall in the US and Asian indices and touched the day's low of 12,473 on relentless selling in metal, oil & gas and consumer durable (CD) stocks. The metal index closed 7% down, as investors turned negative on the sector amid fears of global credit squeeze. Sensex finally closed with a loss of 4.05% or 529 points at 12,526 and Nifty shed 132 points to close at 3,818.

The market breadth was extremely negative. Of the 2,644 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,924 stocks declined, whereas 669 stocks advanced. Fifty one stocks ended unchanged. All the sectoral indices were battered. Among the major losers, the BSE Metal lost 7.01%, BSE Oil & Gas dropped 5.74%, BSE CD shed 4.24%, BSE Bankex declined by 3.88% and BSE Teck fell 3.39%.

Of the 30 stocks of the Sensex only three closed in the green. Among the major losers Tata Steel plummeted by 10.22% at Rs393.80, ICICI Bank tanked by 8.51% at Rs504.50, Sterlite Industries dropped 7.84% at Rs395.75 and Reliance Industries slumped 7.84% at Rs1760. Tata Power crumbled by 6.13% at Rs888.50, HDFC shed 5.57% at Rs2081.55 and Reliance Infrastructure slipped 5.15% at Rs741.25. Larsen & Toubro at Rs1,158.45, Infosys Technologies at Rs1,390.95, Bharti Airtel at Rs756.45, Reliance Communications at Rs333.20, DLF at Rs336.40, Tata Motors at Rs756.45 and Tata Motors at Rs330.70 shed over 2-4% each.

Metal stocks lost heavily. Jindal Steel tumbled by 11.37% at Rs1,151.20, JSW Steel shed 9.68% at Rs410.65, Sterlite Industries lost 7.84% at Rs395.75 and Sesa Goa declined by 7.44% at Rs108.20. The Oil counters too bore the brunt and fell sharply. Aban Offshore, Cairn India, Gail India, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL), Essar Oil, Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL), ONGC and OIL shed over 2-7% each.

Over 1.23 crore shares of Cals Refineries changed hands on the BSE followed by RNRL (1.04 crore shares), IFCI (0.67 crore shares), Chambal Fertlisers and Chemicals (0.51 crore shares) and RPL (0.49 crore shares)