Sensex swings wildly...Ends below 18,900

What a volatile day of trade we had on Dalal Street today, with the NSE Nifty swinging almost 200 points intraday while the BSE Sensex gyrated over 600 points. This was the continuation of this week's pattern with the main indices surging on Wednesday before diving again on Thursday.



Today, the start was subdued but the indices started rising just ahead of inflation numbers and touched day's highs following the release of the inflation data. But, a vicious turn of events saw the market again taking a nasty turn down, dragging the two key indices to the day's low.

After surging past the 5800 levels in the morning trades, the Nifty was unable to hold on to gains led by heavy selling in Realty, Banking and Metals stocks. The broader indices were not spared either on a day of heavy volume. The total market turnover shot up to a whopping Rs. 2,26,366 crores.

The BSE Sensex slumped 322 points or 1.7% to close at 18,860 after being as high as 19,447 and as low as 18,811. It had opened at 19,198. The NSE Nifty tumbled 97 points to end at 5,655. It had earlier touched a day's high of 5,833 and a day's low of 5,639 after opening at 5,752.

The BSE Small-Cap index was down 1% while the BSE Mid-Cap index shed 1.2%. The breadth was weak with 879 shares rising and 1,956 shares falling on the BSE.

"After a really bad start to 2011, one would have thought there will be some bounce back. But, as it happens so many times, the market has its own way of surprising the participants. Weaker than expected IIP data coupled with the rise in inflation were the main culprits this week. Clearly, the Indian economy is confronting a few headwinds as of now and one needs to be careful in the near term before there is more clarity, " says Amar Ambani, Head of Research (India Private Clients) - IIFL.