Down for third day

Sustained selling pressure persisted for the third straight session, with the index falling in sync with the global markets and posting another 1% loss at the closing. Indices across Asia also witnessed a major correction and shed around 1-2% each. The market started to deteriorate by mid-morning trades, after a rebound from a weak opening saw the Sensex breach the 13450 levels and touch an intra-day high of 13461 in early trades. While the market steadily kept losing momentum, widespread selling in afternoon nearly dragged the index below 13300 to the day's low of 13220. The Sensex managed to erase 180 points from the day’s low towards the close and ended the session at 13400, down 104 points. The Nifty declined by 29 points to close at 3974.



On the BSE, the number of declining shares stood at 2,009 stocks, whereas 567 stocks advanced for the day. Fifty six stocks remained changed. Of the 13 sectoral indices, most were battered. The BSE CD dropped 5.68% followed by BSE Metal (down 3.77%), BSE Realty (down 3.77%), BSE Auto (down 2.57%), BSE Power (down 2.39%) and BSE CG (down 2.39%). While BSE IT gained 1.76% and BSE Tech rose 0.15%.



Of the 30 stocks that make the Sensex only 11 advanced. Among major losers, Reliance Infrastructure tanked 6.10% at Rs966.65. JP Associates slumped 4.83% at Rs177.25, Tata Steel shed 4.10% at Rs353.40, Maruti Suzuki India crumbled by 3.48% at Rs1,066.30, Hero Honda dropped 3.43% at Rs1,398.15, HIndalco Industries slipped 3.25% at Rs70.65, DLF plunged 3.34% at Rs269.30 and Tata Motors fell by 3.34% at Rs262.05. Other front-line stocks also declined by around 1-2% each. However, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries bucked the downtrend and advanced 2.57% to Rs1,149.75 and Infosys inched up 2.40% to close at Rs1,767.95.


Of the shares that witnessed maximum trading on the BSE, Unitech occupied the top slot (2.46 crore shares) followed by Suzlon Energy (1.56 crore shares), Cals Refineries (1.01 crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources (0.95 crore shares) and Mahindra Satyam (0.87 crore shares).