Sensex sheds 435pts

The Sensex today opened flat at 14,978, up 20 points. However within a fraction of a second the index slipped into the negative and exhibited sideways movement in morning trades.

The index rebounded into the green and touched a high of 14,996. The Sensex however failed to hold gains owing to negative cues from the global markets and slipped deeper into the red. Intense selling was witnessed in the metal and realty stocks.

The index slipped to a low of 14,447, down 549 points from the day's high. The volatile Sensex finally ended at 14,523, down 435 points.

The BSE Realty and the Metal indices were the major laggards. The Realty index was down 6% at 3,386 and the Metal index slipped 5.6% to 11,288.

The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,751 shares traded, 685 advanced, 1,990 declined and 76 were unchanged today.

INDEX SHAKERS...

Tata Steel and Tata Motors plunged 7.5% each to Rs 417 and Rs 324, respectively.

Jaiprakash Associates and Reliance Communications dropped 6% each to Rs 205 and Rs 309, respectively.

DLF, ONGC and Hindalco shed 5-6% each to Rs 330, Rs 1,064 and Rs 94, respectively.

Sterlite, NTPC, Wipro, Ranbaxy and Reliance declined 3-4% each to Rs 603, Rs 214, Rs 378, Rs 277 and Rs 2,051, respectively.

Larsen & Toubro, Grasim, ACC, Mahindra & Mahindra, BHEL, SBI, TCS and ITC were down 2.5-4% each.

OTHER PROMINENT LOSERS...

Hindustan Construction Company plunged over 10% to Rs 96. It was followed by Lanco Infrastructures, Jet Airways, Indian Hotels, Mangalore Refineries & Petrochemicals, Bhushan Steel, United Spirits, India Infoline, IDBI and Rolta India declined 8-9% each.

...AND THE GAINERS

Castrol India gained over 5% at Rs 366. It was followed by EIH, Piramal Healthcare, Cadila Healthcare, Jain Irrigation, Nestle, Central Bank, Max India, Lupin and Bajaj Auto up 1-4% each.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 362.05 crore. It was followed by Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 321.73 crore), Reliance Infrastructure (Rs 266.23 crore), Unitech (Rs 239.03 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 231.32 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 32 million shares. It was followed by Cals Refineries (29.45 million), Unitech (27 million), Satyam Computers (23.70 million) and IFCI (19.84 million).

via BS