Correction continued unabated for the second consecutive session today. After opening seven points higher over its last close at 7,761 and immediately touching a high of 7,781 in early trades, the Sensex soon snapped gains on selling pressure.As stocks eased further, the Sensex, in the first half, slipped below the 7,700-mark. The market witnessed another round of steep selling towards the closing bell, and the Sensex breached the 7,600-mark to touch a low of 7,595 - down 186 points from the intra-day high.The Sensex finally finished the session with a drop of 148 points (1.9%) at 7,606.All the sectoral indices dropped today. The BSE Bankex declined 3.33% to 4,503, and the BSE Consumer Durables index was down 3.19% to 2,385. The BSE Auto Index (down 2.44% to 3,179), BSE Health Care index (down 1.81% to 2,918), BSE Metal, MidCap, SmallCap and Teck indices also declined.While 28 Sensex stocks declined, two - ONGC and NTPC - advanced today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 18 lakh amounting to Rs 33.46 crore, and declining shares registered a volume of 1.49 crore for Rs 783.33 crore.The market breadth was bearish - out of 2,599 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,526 declined, 1,021 advanced and 52 were unchanged today.SBI crashed 3.24% (Rs 26) to Rs 779. ICICI Bank slumped 4.33% (Rs 22) to Rs 478, and HDFC Bank declined 2.46% (Rs 17) to Rs 658.Reliance dropped 1.96% (Rs 14) to Rs 711, and Reliance Energy lost 2.77% (Rs 18) to Rs 629.While HLL was down 2.18% (Rs 4) at Rs 162, ITC was down a per cent (Rs 14) at Rs 1,724. ONGC, however, ended with marginal gains at Rs 952.Wipro slumped 2.65% (Rs 19) to Rs 704. While Satyam shed 2.88% (Rs 15) to Rs 508, Infosys ended with a per cent loss (Rs 20) at Rs 2,271.Tata Motors tumbled 4.91% (Rs 25) to Rs 478. While Bajaj lost 3.26% (Rs 48) to Rs 1,433, Hero Honda was down 1.28% (Rs 8) at Rs 606.Banking scrips slipped sharply today. Union Bank shed 5.91% (Rs 8) to Rs 127. While Andhra Bank declined 4.80% (Rs 5) to Rs 100, PNB lost 4.76% (Rs 20) to Rs 408. BoB, BoI, Allahabad Bank and IOB lost 2-4% each.Select private sector bank stocks, however, moved up today. Kotak Bank gained 4% to Rs 499. ING Vysya Bank was up 3% at Rs 153. South Indian Bank was up 9% at Rs 69.Himachal topped the volume chart with trades in over 2.86 crore shares followed by SAIL (1.12 crore) and Hindustan Motors (76 lakh).Reliance led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 290 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 256 crore), VSNL (Rs 110 crore) and Bharti (Rs 74 crore), respectively.
