Month of falls for equities

May is turning out to be the cruelest month for the stock markets. With Wednesday's fall of 388 points, the Sensex reported its sharpest ever drop of 1643.95 points this month.

In percentage term, the benchmark index on Wednesday fell 13.65 per cent from 12042.56 on April 29, to close at 10,398.61.

The S&P CNX Nifty plunged by 485.70 points or 13.66 per cent this month to 3071.05 (3556.75). This is Nifty's sharpest fall since the inception of the National Stock Exchange.

The month of May has witnessed three steepest falls in the history of the Sensex "� the market barometer. In percentage terms, top two declines also happened in May.

In May 2004, the Sensex plummeted by 895.47 points. In percentage term, the index fell almost 16 per cent "� from 5655.09 to 4759.62 after the BJP-led NDA government lost the power at the Centre.

Way back in May 1992, the Sensex recorded 881.64-point fall. It was the steepest slump in percentage terms, as the index fell as much as 23 per cent in that single month from 3887.12 to 3006.08. That was in the aftermath of the Harshad Mehta scam.

Among other big falls "� not in the month of May, the Sensex reported a 14 per cent or 461.08-point fall in October 1992, followed by a 14.02 per cent or 371.88-point decline in March 1993 and a 15.13 per cent or 642.66-point tumble in March 2001.

This May, foreign institutional investors, the main drivers of the stock markets, recorded net outflow of Rs 7,354 crore ($1.63 billion). In May 2004, they had sold a net amount of Rs 3,247 crore ($738 million) worth of shares.

All stocks included in the Sensex and the Nifty declined in the range of 3 per cent to 30 per cent in the last one month. National Aluminium has turned out to be the largest loser, declining 30 per cent to Rs 223.45 on Wednesday from Rs 319.30 on April 29. Grasim Industries has been the second-largest loser.

The scrip plunged 29.6 per cent to Rs 1,772.50 (Rs 2,517.10). The other top losers are MTNL, by 27 per cent to Rs 157.44 (Rs 216.15); ABB, by 25.4 per cent to Rs 2,322.60 (Rs 3,115.10); Gujarat Ambuja Cements, by 25 per cent to Rs 92.90 (Rs 124.05); and ACC, by 25 per cent to Rs 762.35 (Rs 1,013.50).

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's price fell 15 per cent to Rs 1,112.65 (Rs 1,306.50), Wipro lost 17 per cent to Rs 449.85 (Rs 539), Reliance Industries shed 7 per cent to Rs 953.25 (Rs 1,021.70), TCS slumped 10 per cent to Rs 1,782.60 (Rs 1,986.50) and Infosys Technologies declined 8 per cent to Rs 2,908.05 (Rs 3,177.50).

This May, the aggregate market capitalisation of actively traded stocks on the Bombay Stock Exchange eroded by Rs 4,10,875 crore to Rs 28,86,998 crore, from Rs 32,97,873 crore on April 29.