FRIGHTFUL FRIDAY: Sensex slumps 453pts

After the 888 points intra-day swing yesterday, the Sensex swung 898 points before ending with a huge loss of 453 points at 10,939 today.

The index began the day on a bullish note by opening with a huge positive gap of 159 points at 11,550. The index soon zoomed to a high of 11,697, but could not hold gains. The index swung nearly 700 points in the first hour of trade.

The index, thereafter, rebounded into positive zone, but selling gained momentum in late noon deals as the exchanges sold shares of brokers who could not meet the margin requirements.

The index broke the 11,000-mark to touch a low of 10,799 - down 898 points from the day's high. The Sensex finally closed with a huge loss of 4% (453 points) at 10,939.

The index has thus shed 10.5% (1,279 points) in the last two trading days. It ended the week with its biggest-ever weekly absolute loss of 1,346 points (11%).

The BSE Metal, FMCG and Healthcare indices plunged over 5% each to 8,705, 2,013 and 3,510, respectively. The Bankex dropped 4.5% to 5,009. All other sectoral indices were down over 3% each.

While the Mid-cap index slumped 4% to 5,293, the Small-cap index dropped 4.5% to 6,803.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

There was not a single gainer among the Sensex stocks for the second consecutive day.

Cipla plunged 9.5% to Rs 222. Ranbaxy slumped 6.5% to Rs 430, and Dr.Reddy's dropped 2.4% to Rs 1,517.

Satyam tumbled over 7% to Rs 664. Wipro shed 3.7% to Rs 491. Infosys slipped over 2% to Rs 2,975, and TCS was down 1.5% at Rs 1,895.

Tata Steel slumped 7.7% to Rs 504. Hindalco dropped 1.6% to Rs 189.

ICICI Bank declined nearly 6% to Rs 557. SBI shed 4.4% to Rs 868, and HDFC dropped 3% to Rs 1,252.

ITC and HLL plunged nearly 6% each to Rs 181 and Rs 243, respectively. Bharti Tele was down over 3% at Rs 387.

ONGC shed 4.4% to Rs 1,290. Reliance slipped 2.8% to Rs 977.

ACC dropped 5.5% to Rs 754. Gujarat Ambuja crumbled nearly 4% to Rs 95, and Grasim shed 3% to Rs 1,925.

Hero Honda tumbled nearly 5% to Rs 832. Maruti slipped over 4% to Rs 786. Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors were down over 2% each at Rs 2,950 and Rs 849, respectively.

While NTPC slumped over 5% to Rs 117, Reliance Energy dropped over 4% to Rs 514. Tata Power declined 2.6% to Rs 534.

OTHER GAINERS & LOSERS

Assam Company zoomed 10% to Rs 28. Educomp Solutions, Phoenix Lamps, KLG Systel, Ramco Systems, Indoco Remedies, Container Corporation, United Breweries, ICI India, Proctor & Gamble and Asahi India were the other major gainers today.

Cyber Media nose-dived 19% to Rs 72. Today's Writing, Mahindra Gesco, Ind-Swift, TTK Prestige, SRF, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Hotels, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, India Cements, Jindal Saw Pipes, National Aluminium, IndusInd Bank and HMT were all down over 10% each.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 511.88 crore followed by Tata Steel (Rs 184.93 crore), SBI (Rs 144.48 crore), Bombay Dyeing (Rs 139.33 crore) and Satyam (Rs 121.74 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 1.11 crore shares followed by Reliance Petro (78.80 lakh), G V Films (78.36 lakh), SAIL (72.18 lakh) and Reliance (51.11 lakh).