Despite a major crash on the Wall Street wherein the Dow dropped over 4% to close below the 7,000-mark for the first time in 12 years, the Sensex opened just 24 points lower at 8,583 as recovery in other asian markets helped sentiment.
The index rebounded into the positive zone and touched a high of 8,635 backed by fresh buying in cement and realty stocks. Fresh selling in late noon trades saw the index slip back into red and extended losses towards the close.
The Sensex dropped to a low of 8,390, and finally ended at a 3-1/4 year low at 8,427 - down 180 points.
The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,512 stocks traded, 1,591 declined, 814 advanced and the rest were unchanged today.
INDEX SHAKERS...
Tata Power slumped 6.5% to Rs 666. Reliance Communications plunged 4.5% to Rs 139.
ITC shed 3.8% at Rs 172. TCS and HDFC tumbled around 3% each to Rs 445 and Rs 1,200, respectively.
Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank and Tata Motors dropped around 2.5% each to Rs 601, Rs 296 and Rs 142, respectively.
ONGC, Tata Steel and Sun Pharma slipped 2.3% each to Rs 648, Rs 156 and Rs 972, respectively.
Reliance and SBI declined around 2% each to Rs 1,199 and Rs 976, respectively.
Hindalco, Reliance Infrastructure, Ranbaxy, Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Larsen & Toubro and Sterlite were the other major losers.
...AND THE MOVERS
Grasim surged nearly 3% to Rs 1,362. ACC advanced over 1% to Rs 530.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 220.25 crore followed by ICICI Bank (Rs 204.25 crore), Educomp Solutions (Rs 143.40 crore), Reliance Infrastructure (Rs 118.70 crore) and SBI (Rs 117.80 crore).
Cals Refineries led the volume chart with trades of around 1.21 crore shares followed by Unitech (74.33 lakh), Satyam (69.77 lakh), Suzlon (69.13 lakh) and ICICI Bank (67.27 lakh).
