The Sensex opened 152 points lower at 9,435. After an initial dip the index rebounded into the positive zone and touched a high of 9,630. The index, however, was not able to hold gains for long as it slipped back into red mainly on account of heavy selling in realty, metal and capital goods stocks.
The index plunged to a low of 9,251 - down 379 points from the day's high. The Sensex recovered partially and finally ended with a loss of 180 points at 9,406.
The BSE Metal index plunged over 7% to 5,204. The Realty index tumbled over 5% to 1,864, and the Capital Goods index dropped 4.7% to 6,679. The Auto and FMCG indices, however, advanced over 1% each to 1,994 and 2,524, respectively.
The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,518 stocks traded, 1,879 declined, 577 advanced and the rest were unchanged today.
INDEX SHAKERS...
Satyam tanked another 40% today on hefty volumes following the accounting fraud disclosed by Raju on Wednesday. The stock ended at Rs 24, off from the day's low of Rs 11.5.
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Reliance Communications and Sterlite slumped 9.5% each to Rs 187 and Rs 273, respectively.
Tata Steel plunged over 8% to Rs 215. Reliance Infrastructure shed 7.7% at Rs 516.
DLF, Larsen & Toubro and Ranbaxy tumbled over 7% each to Rs 218, Rs 720 and Rs 219, respectively.
Tata Power slipped 6% to Rs 748, and Tata Motors declined 5.5% to Rs 163.
Jaiprakash Associates, Reliance and Hindalco were down around 4% each at Rs 69, Rs 1,151 and Rs 53, respectively.
...AND THE MOVERS
TCS soared over 6% to Rs 536. Hindustan Unilever (HUL) surged nearly 5% to Rs 264.
NTPC gained 4% to Rs 178. Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti rallied 3.5% each to Rs 311 and Rs 584, respectively.
Wipro moved up 3% to Rs 251. Grasim advanced nearly 2% to Rs 1,361, and HDFC added 1% to Rs 1,647.
MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS
DLF topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 378.75 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 274.50 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 201.50 crore), Jaiprakash Associates (Rs 181.50 crore) and Satyam (Rs 165.30 crore).
Satyam led the volume chart with trades of around 8.20 crore followed by Unitech (4.53 crore), Jaiprakash Associates (2.64 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (2.29 crore) and DLF (1.89 crore).