After a rally of 255 points on Friday post Railway Budget presentation, the Sensex today opened 41 points higher at 14,962. High expectations from the Union Budget saw the index rally to a high of 15,098 in opening trades.
The index started paring gains as soon as the Budget session started. The selling suddendly gained momentum and tumbled to lower levels as the market come to terms with a not so positive Budget.
Hike in Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) and continuity of Securities Transaction Tax (STT) along with no change in corporate tax rates were some of the disappointing factors from the Budget. No clear roadmap for disinvestment and reforms in the near future also weighed on the sentiment. The index nose-dived to a low of 13,959, down 1,138 points from the day's high.
However, there were some silver lining in the Budget, like the move to abolish Commodity Transaction Tax (CTT), Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) and some cheer for personal income tax payers.
The Sensex finally ended at 14,043, down 869 points. In the process, the index today recorded its sixth biggest-ever single day fall ever in history.
| Date | Close | Net Chg | % Chg |
| 21-Jan-08 | 17605.35 | -1408.35 More From This Section | -7.41 |
| 24-Oct-08 | 8701.07 | -1070.63 | -11.0 |
| 17-Mar-08 | 14809.49 | -951.03 | -6.03 |
| 03-Mar-08 | 16677.88 | -900.84 | -5.12 |
| 22-Jan-08 | 16729.94 | -875.41 | -4.97 |
| 06-Jul-09 | 14043.4 | -869.65 | -5.83 |
| 11-Feb-08 | 16630.91 | -833.98 | -4.78 |
| 18-May-06 | 11391.43 | -826.38 | -6.76 |
| 10-Oct-08 | 10527.85 | -800.51 | -7.07 |
| 13-Mar-08 | 15357.35 | -770.63 | -4.78 |
The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,633 shares traded, 2,020 declined, 551 advanced and 62 were unchanged on the BSE today.
Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Bankex crashed 8% to 7,769. It was followed by Realty (7.28%), Capital Godds (7.02 %), Metal (6.52%), Power (6.36%), Oil & Gas (5.81%). While FMCG was up around 1%.
INDEX SHAKERS...
Reliance Infrastructure nose-dived 12.5% to Rs 1,131.
ICICI Bank and Jaiprakash Associates slumped 10% to Rs 678 and Rs 193, respectively.
Tata Steel tumbled 9.5% to Rs 396.
HDFC, Larsen & Toubro, SBI and DLF have dropped 8-9% each to Rs 2,353, Rs 1,464, Rs 1,655 and Rs 309, respectively.
Reliance Communications, Tata Power, Hindalco, Sterlite, Reliance, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, ONGC, ACC, NTPC, Grasim and Bharti Airtel shed 4-6% each.
...AND THE MOVERS
ITC added 3% to Rs 198 and Hindustan Unilever was up around 1% at Rs 276.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
Reliance topped the value chart with a total turnover of Rs 394.70 crore. It was followed by Educomp Solutions (Rs 353.28 crore), Reliance Infrastructure (328.64 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 269 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 253.17 crore) and DLF (Rs 246.11 crore).
Cals Refineries led the volume chart with trades of 90 million shares. It is followed by Unitech (26.53 million), Suzlon (22.22 million), GVK Power & Infrastructure (19.57 million) and IFCI (16.97 million).