Selling spree continues

Across-the-board selling leads to an unabated slide in the market with the Sensex and Nifty shedding 2.91% and 3.58% respectively for the day.
The market took a sharp dip after an initial surge and continued moving southwards, as shares across sectors came under the grip of relentless selling pressure

The session was marked with extreme volatility. After a firm opening at 14979, around 21 points above its previous close of 14958, the markets failed to capitalise on the gains and drifted into the negative territory in the afternoon. Heavyweights as well as realty, metal, public sector undertakings, oil & gas and capital goods stocks contributed to the fall and dragged the index to an intra-day low of 14447. The Sensex finally ended 2.91% or 435 points lower at 14523, while Nifty pared 3.58% or 162 points to 4356.

Market breadth, the number of advancing scrips to declining ones, was extremely negative. Of the 2,751 stocks traded on the BSE, where 1,990 stocks declined only 686 stocks advanced. Seventy five stocks ended unchanged. Among sectoral indices, BSE Realty shed 5.90% followed by BSE Metal (down 5.63%), BSE PSU (down 4.29%) and BSE Oil & Gas (down 4.26%).

Of the 30 stocks of the Sensex basket, only one stock-- Tata Power rose 0.03% at Rs1,181.25--closed positive. Among major losers, Tata Steel tumbled 7.52% at Rs417, Tata Motors plunged 6.28% at Rs205.10, JP Associates slumped 6.28% at Rs205.10, Reliance Communications dropped 5.92% at Rs309, DLF shed 5.66% at Rs333.30, ONGC lost 5.36% at Rs1,064.25 and Hindalco Industries declined 5.25% at Rs93.80. Other front-line stocks were down by 1-4% each.

Over 3.20 crore shares of Reliance Natural Resources changed hands on the BSE followed by Cals Refineries (2.94 crore shares), Unitech (2.70 crore shares), Satyam Computer Services (2.36 crore shares) and IFCI (1.98 crore shares).