Free fall continues

Nervousness gripped the market for the third consecutive day, as selling pressure since early trades saw the index remain weak all through the trading session. Though the Sensex resumed at 9,316, around 90 points below its previous close and moved up to touch an early high of 9,331 on selective buying, the market soon snapped gains due to selling pressure. As correction continued unabated, the index tumbled below the 9,100 mark to touch an intra-day low of 9,024 by the end of day. While the market languished in the negative territory all through the noon trades, Sensex signed off the session 296 points lower at 9,110. Nifty also ended 2,773, about 100 points lower.

Market breadth was weak. Of the 2,522 stocks traded on BSE, 1,613 stocks declined, whereas 824 stocks advanced. Eighty-five stocks ended unchanged. All sectoral indices ended lower. BSE Metal fell 5.62%, BSE Realty dipped 4.87%, BSE IT shed 3.80% and BSE Power was down 3.67%.

Among draggers, Wipro dropped 10.63% at Rs224, Reliance Infrastructure shed 6.94% at Rs480.45, Tata Steel tumbled 6.62% at Rs200.30, Ranbaxy Laboratories declined 5.46% at Rs206.95 and DLF was down 5.45% at Rs205.75. Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd at Rs1,344.15, State Bank of India at Rs1156.85, Sterlite Industries at Rs260, Hindalco Industries at Rs50.15 were down around 4-5% each. However only Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and JP Associates managed to close with a gain of 1-2% each.

Metal stocks came under sharp hammering. Jindal Steel slumped 10.46% at Rs822.90, SAIL lost 8.08% at Rs72.80, Tata Steel declined 6.62% at Rs200.30 and Gujarat NRE was down 6.36% at Rs28.70. Sesa Goa, Hindustan Zinc, Sterlite Industries, Hindalco Industries, Jai Corp and JSW Steel dipped 3-5% each.

Over 5.31 crore shares Satyam Computer Services changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.83 crore shares), Unitech (1.73 crore shares), Suzlon Energy (1.40 crore shares) and DLF (0.78 crore shares).