Sensex crashes steeply by 491.34 points

Mumbai, Nov 3 : The Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) drifted lower for the sixth consecutive session today by a whopping 491.34 points, crashing to a two-month low at 15,404.94 on panic selling pressure by local operators along with discouraging advice from global markets, brokers said.

The Nifty index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) was quoted below the 4500 mark to close at 4563.90 with a loss of 147.80 points from its previous day's level of 4711.70.

The Sensex has crashed steeply by 1,305.87 points and Nifty index by 433.15 points in the last six sessions.

Trading resumed after three days and all key Stocks collapsed like a pack of cards in the last one hour of trade, with market extending losses for the sixth trading day.

The Nifty also saw a sharp sell-off today and inched back to the 4500 level for the first time since August 2009. It fell below the psychological 4,600 mark for the first time since August 21, 2009.

Huge shorts build up and weak global cues hammered the equity benchmarks. High beta stocks have beaten down badly. The benchmark indices tumbled in the second half post European opening and fall in US index futures. European markets were down nearly 2 per cent on the back of selling in financial stocks.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) slumped over 6 per cent on reports the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has set up a team to examine the expenses Reliance Industries ltd (RIL) incurred on its D6 natural gas field in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin in the Bay of Bengal. Stocks fell across the globe as investors continued to fret over the early removal of government stimulus, particularly in the financial sector.

High volatility was the hallmark of the day's trading session. The market breadth was quite weak. Realty, cement and metal shares declined sharply on selling pressure. IT stocks slipped on profit booking. Telecom shares saw divergent trend with Bharti Airtel rebounding from a 52-week low on bargain hunting after a steep recent slide. Reliance Communications dropped on poor earnings, brokers said.

Intraday volatility on the bourses was high. After an initial slide triggered by weak global stocks, the market recouped almost the entire losses shortly. However, the intraday rebound was short-lived. The market weakened again later and once again staged a strong intraday rebound with the Sensex entering the positive zone. However, weak global stocks pulled the market into the red again later.

The Sensex opened 57.65 points lower at 15,838.63. It rose 78.78 points at the day's high of 15,957.06 in early afternoon trade. The Sensex lost 565.72 points at the day's low of 15,330.56 in late trade, its lowest level since August 21, 2009.

The S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE resumed flat at 4712.25 points, then it recorded the day's high and low at 4729.85 and 4538.50 points resepctviely.

Volumes remained above the Rs 1 lakh crore mark and total traded turnover was at Rs 1,04,071.99 crore. This included Rs 17,384.07 crore from the NSE cash segment, Rs 81,574.39 crore from the NSE F&O and the balance Rs 5,113.53 crore from the BSE cash segment.

The market breadth was weak. On BSE, 1910 shares declined as compared with 749 that rose. A total of 66 shares remained unchanged.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 5104 crore as compared with Rs 3869 crore, previous day's level.

Among the 30-member Sensex pack, 27 slipped while only 3 of them managed to post gains. Declines outnumbered advances as about 710 shares advanced, while 2,294 shares declined on the NSE. Nearly 759 shares remained unchanged.

Selling was seen across all the sectors. The BSE Realty Index crashed 9.76 per cent to settle lower at 3453.63 points followed by Metal index by 5.95 per cent to 13,110.68 pts, oil & gas by 4.10 pc to 9047.91 pts, SML CAP index by 4.50 pc to 6741.24 pts, MID CAP index by 3.74 per cent to 5789.49 pts, power index by 3.49 pc to 2812.78 pts,IT index by 3.44 pc to 4273.38 pts, PSU index by 2.68.8175.11 pts, techno index by 2.64 pc to 2780.10 and Bankex index by 1.93 pc to 9156.16 pts.

The shares of Hindalco crashed by 10.50 per cent at Rs 109.15 to lead the losers in Group A at the end of session on BSE. Among other scrips that lost were: DLF Ltd, down by 9.04 per cent to Rs 336.55, Jai Prakash Asso by 7.52 per cent to Rs 194.35, Sterlite Ind by 6.40 per cent to Rs 722.15, ACC by 6.20 per cent to Rs 701.30.REL INFRA by 5.96 per cent to Rs 995.35 pts, Reliance by 5.73 per cent to Rs 1,820.65, REL COM LTD by 5.71 pc to 165.90, Tata Steel by 5.51 pc to Rs 445.60, Wipro Ltd by 4.36 pc to Rs 581.15 and SBI by 3.98 pc to Rs 2,103.50.

Some heavyweight gainers included Bharti Airtel, up by 2.67 per cent to Rs 299.95, Maruti Suzuki by 1.13 per cent to Rs 1.418.80 and Sun Pharma by 0.31 per cent to Rs 1,386.00.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
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