Sensex crashes 220 pts, Infosys drops 7%

Taking the cue from the weak global markets and muted guidance by Infosys, the Sensex opened below the 6,400-mark with a loss of 128 points at 6,340. The market was extremely bearish through the trading session as selling was seen across-the-board with tech stocks leading the downfall.

Fresh selling pressure in late noon trades dragged the Sensex below the 6,250-mark to a low of 6,232. The Sensex finally wrapped up the session with a huge drop of 220 points (3.4%) at 6,248.

Infosys, which slid sharply on the Nasdaq yesterday, crashed nearly 7% (Rs 146) to Rs 1,957. While Satyam slumped 6% (Rs 25) to Rs 383, Wipro dropped 6.29% (Rs 41) to Rs 605.

Reliance declined 2.89% (Rs 16) to Rs 530. While ONGC dropped 3.48% (Rs 30) to Rs 847, ITC lost 2.73% (Rs 39) to Rs 1,377.

SBI fell 3.66% (Rs 24) to Rs 622. While HDFC Bank lost 4.5% (Rs 25) to Rs 537, ICICI Bank shed 2.30% (Rs 9) to Rs 403.

Cipla crashed 6% (Rs 15) to Rs 234. While Dr. Reddy's declined 3.41% (Rs 25) to Rs 712, Ranbaxy shed 3.43% (Rs 34) to Rs 952.

Grasim dipped 1.76% (Rs 21) to Rs 1,185. While ACC was down 1.43% (Rs 5) at Rs 362, Gujarat Ambuja slipped a per cent (Rs 4) to Rs 421.

Tata Motors fell 3.37% (Rs 14) to Rs 410. While Maruti slipped 1.64% (Rs 7) to Rs 406, Bajaj came off its lows to end marginally weak at Rs 1,080 - down Rs 5. Hero Honda, however, ended in the green with a gain of a rupee at Rs 515.

Hindalco tumbled 5.43% (Rs 72) to Rs 1,257. HDFC at Rs 702 (down Rs 20 or 2.84%), Tisco at Rs 366 (down Rs 15 or 3.85%), Tata Power at Rs 339 (down Rs 11 or 3.28%) and Zee at Rs 132 (down Rs 4 or 3.20%) wilted under relentless selling pressure.

The BSE TECk index plunged over 5% (89 points) to 1,680. The BSE Metal index declined 4.7% (291 points) to 6,239. All the other sector indices, too, closed with sharp declines today.

Declining scrips outnumbered advancing shares 4:1 - out of 2,366 scrips traded today, 1,817 declined, 499 advanced and 50 were unchanged today.

TCS dropped 6% (Rs 81) to Rs 1,319. Polaris, Geometric, i-flex, Patni and NIIT Tech also declined sharply today.

Metal scrips were hammered today. Hind Zinc dropped 8% to Rs 161. SAIL lost 6% to Rs 59. Sterlite and Essar Steel also declined.

Pharma scrips, however, closed with gains. Torrent Pharma was up 3% at Rs 479. Nicholas, Pfizer, Aventis and Dishman Pharma also moved up.

ABB, which reported good quarterly numbers, was firm right through the session, and closed with a gain of 4% at Rs 1,295.

Infosys was the most active counter with a turnover of nearly Rs 148 crore followed by Tata Steel (Rs 100 crore) and Reliance (Rs 96 crore).