The Sensex continues to slide and is now down 475 points at 15,301. The market is witnessing aggressive selling on account of weakness in global markets. The US markets tumbled last night amid rising concern over sub-prime lending in the housing sector. Currently, the Hang Seng has slumped 450 points to 22,761. The Shanghai Composite index has dropped 43 points to 4304. The Nikkei, has ended, almost 500 points lower at 17,210. The Taiwan Weighted index has crashed 404 points to 9162. The Straits Times index has dropped 112 points to 3468, and the Seoul Composite index has shed 80 points to 1883. BHEL has plunged over 5% to Rs 1,665. Reliance Communications has tumbled 4.7% to Rs 543. Tata Steel and Hindalco have shed 4.5% each to Rs 672 and Rs 175, respectively. Larsen & Toubro and HDFC Bank have slipped over 4% each to Rs 2,435 and Rs 1,170, respectively. SBI and HDFC have declined 3.7% each to Rs 1,493 and Rs 1,948, respectively. Tata Motors and NTPC are down 3.5% each to Rs 705 and Rs 162, respectively. Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Auto, ACC, Mahindra & Mahindra, ICICI Bank, ONGC and Wipro are the other major losers. Ranbaxy is the sole gainer among the index stocks and is up 3% at Rs 384. The market breadth is extremely negative - out of 2,102 stocks traded so far, 1,538 have declined, 518 have advanced and 46 are unchanged. |