Market gives up three-day winning streak

Taking cue from last three day’s gain of around 342 points, Sensex opened on a firm note at 10,073, around 96 point up from the previous close of 9,977. While the market witnessed a fluctuating trend for a while, the afternoon trades saw the index tumble below the 9,700 mark to touch the day's low of 9,683 amid relentless selling pressure. Sensex finally ended the day with loss of 262 points at 9,715, whereas Nifty declined by 87 points to close at 2,954.

Market breadth was extremely weak as losers outdid gainers. Of 2,597 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,569 stocks declined while 956 stocks advanced. Seventy two stocks ended unchanged. All the sectoral indices slipped sharply. BSE Realty dropped 7.36% followed by BSE Teck (down 5.02%), BSE Power (down 4.44%), BSE Metal (down 4.36%), BSE IT (down 4.04%) and BSE CG (down 3.86%).

Most of index heavyweights witnessed heavy correction. Among majors, Satyam Computer Services tumbled 30.22% at Rs158.05, Reliance Infrastructure dropped 13.73% at Rs549.15, Reliance Communications moved down by 13.36% at Rs202.70, and JP Associates lost 12.11% at Rs76.95. Other frontline stocks lost between 1-9% each. Select counters, however, bucked the downtrend and ended with gains. ICICI Bank advanced 2.43% at Rs431.80 and HDFC Bank moved up by 1.83% at Rs1,002.05, while Infosys, Wipro, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Mahindra & Mahindra, Grasim Industries, ONGC and Maruti Suzuki India ended with modest gains.

Realty stocks were hit hard and dropped sharply. India Bulls Realestate crumbled by 11.13% at Rs131.30, Orbit Corporation lost 10.57% at Rs60.10, Unitech shed 9.11% at Rs34.90 and DLF declined by 8.64% at Rs253.20. Mahindra Life Science, Ansal Properties and Infrastructure, Parsvnath Developers and Peninsula Land were down over 6% each.

Over 3.33 crore shares of Satyam Computer Services changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (2.27 crore shares), HDIL (1.99 crore shares), Suzlon Energy (1.61 crore shares), Unitech (1.30 crore shares) and GVK Power & Infrastructure (1.17 crore shares).

Satyam was the most actively traded counter on the BSE and registered a turnover of Rs551 crore followed by Reliance (Rs347 crore), HDIL (Rs305 crore), Reliance Infras