The Sensex opened 89 points higher at 8,535 backed by gains in banking stocks owing to a 50 basis points rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India late last evening. The index, however, could not hold gains for long as it soon slipped into red.
The banking stocks which opened in green, soon pared gains and slipped into red owing to lack of buying at the counters. Aggressive selling in FMCG and energy shares accentuated the fall in the index. The index tumbled to a low of 8,167 - down 368 points from the day's open.
The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 249 points at 8,198.
The BSE Bankex plunged over 4% to 3,728. The Oil & Gas index shed 3.7% at 5,625, and the FMCG index dropped 3.3% to 1,887.
The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,470 stocks traded, 1,686declined, 699 advanced and 85 were unchanged today.
INDEX SHAKERS...
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Ranbaxy slumped over 9% to Rs 144.
ICICI Bank plunged over 5% to Rs 270. HDFC Bank tumbled 4.5% to Rs 801, and SBI shed 2.5% at Rs 935. HDFC was down 1% at Rs 1,150.
Reliance and Tata Power dropped 5% each to Rs 1,149 and Rs 640, respectively. NTPC shed nearly 4% at Rs 173. ONGC was down nearly 2% at Rs 652.
Hindustan Unilever plunged 4.5% to Rs 230, and ITC dropped 3.5% to Rs 168.
BHEL slipped 3.6% to Rs 1,284. Reliance Infrastructure declined 3.3% to Rs 442.
Tata Steel dropped 3% to Rs 152. Tata Motors declined 2.7% to Rs 139.
Grasim, Hindalco and ACC were down 2.3% each at Rs 1,383, Rs 38 and Rs 528, respectively.
Larsen & Toubro, Maruti and Bharti Airtel too were down around 2% each at Rs 569, Rs 668 and Rs 589, respectively.
...AND THE MOVERS
Sun Pharma and Jaiprakash Associates moved up around 2% each to Rs 998 and Rs 67, respectively.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 316.40 crore followed by Akruti City (Rs 221.20 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 216.15 crore), HDFC (Rs 202.75 crore) and SBI (Rs 162.50 crore).
Satyam led the volume chart with trades of around 86.90 lakh shares followed by Punjab National Bank (81.90 lakh), Unitech (78.05 lakh), ICICI Bank (77.85 lakh) and Cals Refineries (70.55 lakh).