Sensex slaughtered on heavy volume

It was a complete Blood-Bath on Dalal Street on Thursday, with the Indian equity indices plunged by over 3%, registering their biggest single-day fall since August 2009.

Today’s nasty fall was seen on record trading volumes, with the total market turnover crossed all time high. The F&O volume itself came close to the Rs. 3 Lakh crore mark on the expiry day. The steep fall was so swift that every pull back attempt was used for further selling.



The Indian bourses saw all round selling, with Banking, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods and Auto stocks being among the major laggards. The Mid-Cap and the Small-Cap indices were also badly battered down.

Among the principal factor behind today’s vicious fall was the recent spike in crude oil. It has been rising steadily lately amid mounting worries that supplies from the Middle-East might be disrupted owing to the political turbulence. Crude oil crossed $100 in New York trading today on reports that up to half of Libya’s output is offline.

"Market sentiment appears to be extremely fragile amid concerns that the simmering political tensions in the Middle-East and North African would lift crude oil prices further. India imports more than 70% of its annual crude volume and the Indian basket comprises 40% Brent and the balance Dubai variety. Any spike in oil prices is bad for the Indian economy as it will adversely affect the already high current account gap," says Amar Ambani, Head of Research (India Private Clients) - IIFL.

The BSE Sensex plunged 546 points to end at 17,632 and the NSE Nifty lost by 175 points to close at 5,263.

Asian markets closed slightly mixed, with indices in China and Taiwan managing to post modest gains while others ended mostly in the red.

The European markets were also trading in the red, the FTSE index was down 0.3%, CAC index was down 0.2% and DAX index was down 0.9%.

Outside the frontline indices, the big losers in the broader market were Aurobindo Pharma, DB Realty, United Spirit, Jai Corp and MTNL. On the other hand, gainers included Nalco, Tata Comm, Opto Circuit and Thermax.

Hero Honda and Cairn are leading in the Sensex and Nifty.

Tata Motors, Jaiprakash Associates, ICICI Bank, Jindal Steel, L&T, Reliance Infra, RCOM, Reliance Capital, Axis Bank and Sesa Goa are the notable losers in the Sensex and Nifty.