The week was marred by high volatility, amid news flow from the global economic, corporate world also the derivatives expiry for the November series cast its shadow on trades. The BSE benchmark index, the Sensex, slumped 448.83 points or 2.29% to close at 19,136, the lowest closing since September 9, 2010.
The losses of these week could have been higher, but for November 22, the start of week, when the market was upbeat on the back of global markets. The Nifty had then regained the psychological level of 6,000 and the Sensex closed up 1.9% at 19,957.
The fall in the broader markets, was even sharper. The smallcap index lost 7% to close at 9516, down 721 points while the midcap index shed 5.7% at 7613, losing 464 points.
Two main events, the Korean shelling and the CBI bursting off a bribery scandal decided the course of the market this week. .On Tuesday, North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells at a South Korean island, killing two soldiers and setting houses ablaze, in one of the heaviest attacks on its neighbor since the Korean War ended in 1953.
In the other event, CBI arrested Ramchandran R Nair, chief executive officer of LIC Housing Finance for improper loan disbursals and Rajesh Sharma, chairman of MMFS. Money Matters, said sources, was raided as CBI was investigating irregularities regarding market-related transactions linked to bureaucrats and politicians.
Among the BSE sectoral indices, realty sector was the biggest loser which slumped 13.5% to touch a low of 2,454. D B Realty down 41% followed by Orbit Corporation and HDIL losing 29% and 22% respectively were the major losers in this space.
Metal and PSU, down 6% each were the other major losers. Even in this bad market weather, IT managed to hold ground, gaining 2% was the only index that closed in the positive. This was mainly due to the strengthening of dollar.
In the Sensex-30 stocks, TCS (Rs 1,045) and Infosys (Rs 3,040) gaining 2% are the top gainers followed by Bharti Airtel (Rs 333), Wipro (Rs 406) adding 1%
On the losers list were Jaiprakash Associates(Rs 105), Reliance Communications (Rs 130), Reliance Infrastructure (Rs 850) which lost 10 -12%. Sterlite (Rs 161), BHEL (Rs 2,100), DLF (Rs 287) and Hindalco (Rs 191) down 6 - 8% were the other noteable losers.