Dow effect; market below 8900

With Dow Jones down to its 6-year low and Asian markets opening weak, Sensex lost 2.20% for the day. Starting the day with a negative note (at 8944) the markets could not recover, as sentiment turned extremely bearish as the day passed. A sharp fall in heavy weights, correction in Bankex (the banking index) and drop in information technology, metal, technology and oil stocks dragged Sensex below 8800 mark in the afternoon to touch the day's low of 8763, down 280 points. The index closed the day 199 points down at 8843 whereas Nifty shed 53 points to close at 2736.

The market breadth was extremely weak. Of the 2,500 stocks traded on BSE 1,656 stocks declined, whereas 758 stocks advanced. Eighty six stocks ended unchanged. All the 13 sectoral indices were hammered. BSE Bankex led the slump and closed weaker by 3.49% followed by BSE IT (down 2.69%), BSE Metal (down 2.67%) and BSE Teck (down 2.21%).

Of the 30 scrips that make Sensex only two ended positive for the day. Of the major losers ICICI Bank slumped 7.07% to Rs335.95, Reliance Communications shed 4.55% to Rs155.30, Reliance Energy declined

3.38% to Rs491.30, Tata Consultancy Services lost 3.16% at Rs473.95, Sterlite Industries shed 3.16% at Rs248.40, Reliance Industries fell 3.10% at Rs1253.55, Mahindra & Mahindra slipped by 3.07% at Rs281.25, Larsen & Toubro plunged 2.83% at Rs622.50 and HDFC tumbled by 2.80% at Rs1,353.65. Other blue chips also fell around 1-2% each. Among select gainers, Maruti Suzuki India added 0.83% at Rs553.75 and Bharti Airtel gained marginally.

Satyam Computer Services was the most actively traded counter with volumes of over 1.44 crore shares on BSE followed by Firstsource Solutions (80.25 lakh shares), Wire & Wireless India (76.67 lakh shares), Unitech (65.60 lakh shares) and Spice Communications (65.67 lakh shares