Sensex plunges 265pts, Rel Cap drops 15%

The Sensex touched a high of 8520 in early morning deals, and then it was all fall down...

The Sensex plunged to a low of 8,186 - a decline of 334 points from the intra-day high - before finally closing with a loss of 265 points (3.13%) at 8,222.

All the sectoral indices also tanked today. The BSE SmallCap Index plunged 7.6% (460 points) to 5,579. The BSE MidCap Index dropped 5.6% (237 points) to 3,991. The BSE Metal and Oil & Gas indices declined over 5% each.

Over 96% scrips dropped - Out of 2,597 scrips traded, 2,503 (96.83%) declined, 86 advanced and eight were unchanged.

ONGC plunged over 4% (Rs 43) to Rs 996. Reliance lost 3.5% (Rs 28) to Rs 755. HLL dropped 3.5% (Rs 6) to Rs 165. ITC was down 2.6% (Rs 4) to Rs 136.

Infosys lost over 2% (Rs 52) to Rs 2,413. Satyam plumetted 5% (Rs 27) to Rs 528. TCS was down Rs 50 at Rs 1,403, and Wipro dipped 4.6% (Rs 17) to Rs 356.

Bajaj dropped 3% (Rs 47) to Rs 1,621. Hero Honda, Maruti and Tata Motors also declined.

Hindalco slumped 7% (Rs 10) to Rs 145. Bharti dropped over 4% (Rs 15) to Rs 335. BHEL was down Rs 33 at Rs 1,102, and HDFC lost Rs 24 to Rs 966.

Grasim slipped 4% (Rs 50) to Rs 1,310. Gujarat Ambuja and ACC also finished with steep losses.

SBI dipped 3% (Rs 27) to Rs 892. HDFC Bank also lost over 3% (Rs 24) to Rs 699. ICICI Bank was down Rs 4 at Rs 573.

Ranbaxy was down over 4% (Rs 21) at Rs 495. Cipla and Dr. Reddy's also declined.

Pidilite zoomed 8% (Rs 7) to Rs 91. Mahindra Gesco moved up 4% to Rs 255. PSL, which announced the bagging of a big order yesterday, added 5% to Rs 225. Mico, Glaxo Consumer, Torrent, Andhra Bank and Sesa Goa also logged gains.

Reliance Capital tanked 15% (Rs 64) to Rs 372. GTL slumped 14% to Rs 106. GHCL dropped 20% (Rs 23) to Rs 91.

Reliance was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 262 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 259 crore), SBI (Rs 155 crore), McDowell (Rs 141 crore) and ITC (Rs 121 crore).