Rate sensitives' dismiss markets

Aggressive selling in rate sensitive stocks, couple of days ahead of the RBI policy review, saw the markets tank heavily. The RBI is scheduled to review its monetary policy on January 29. Markets fear hike of Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), which in turn could affect these sectors.

This morning, the Asian markets were mixed. However, the bears were in no mood to relent. Soon, after the markets opened they exerted pressure and the indices headed south as the day progressed. The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 71 points, and could not move an inch higher. The index tumbled to a low of 16,231, and finally ended with a huge loss of 491 points at 16,290. In the process, the index has plunged 1,351 points (7.7%) in the last six trading days.

The NSE Nifty slumped to a low of 4,833, and finally settled with a heavy loss of 155 points at 4,853. The index has shed 422 points (8%) in the last six day.

Realty stocks seem to have bore brunt of the selling, which was evident from the fact that the BSE Realty index plummeted a whopping 8% (291 points) to 3,357. The Metal index shed nearly 6% (992 points) at 16,051. The Auto index tumbled nearly 5% (346 points) to 6,898, and the Bankex dropped over 4% (406 points) to 9,296.

The market breadth too was extremely bearish, with nearly eight stocks for each advancing stock. Out of 2,944 stocks traded, 2,582 declined and 337 advanced today.

INDEX SHAKERS...

Tata Steel slumped 8.5% to Rs 559. DLF plunged nearly 8% to Rs 317, and Tata Motors tumbled nearly 7% to Rs 716.

Wipro, Hindalco and Mahindra & Mahindra dropped nearly 6% each to Rs 655, Rs 150 and Rs 1,012, respectively.

Maruti, SBI and ICICI Bank declined around 5% each. Hero Honda, Sterlite, HDFC Bank, NTPC, Jaiprakash Associates, HDFC and Reliance Infrastructure were down 3-4% each.

ITC, however, bucked the trend and was the sole gainer among the Sensex stocks. The stock ended a rupee higher at Rs 256.

VALUE & VOLUMER TOPPERS

SBI topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 195.69 crore on the BSE followed by Tata Steel (Rs 193.64 crore), Jai Corp (Rs 157.40 crore), DLF (Rs 124.59 crore) and Reliance (Rs 114.52 crore).

Unitech led the volume chart with trades of around 13.37 million shares followed by Suzlon (11.21 million), RCF (8.85 million), National Fertilisers (8.39 million) and Satyam (8.37 million).