The Sensex opened 50 points higher at 15,153. A freak trade in Reliance saw the index touch a low of 14,761. The index soon touched a high of 15,201, before slipping back into the negative zone.
The index, thereafter, tried to recover but failed. Aggressive profit-taking in realty and metal stocks dragged the index further into red in the latter half of the day. IT stocks, however, bucked the trend.
The index touched a low of 14,604 - down 597 points from the day's high - in the last few trades of the day. The Sensex finally ended with a significant loss of 437 points at 14,666.
The BSE Realty index slumped 10.5% to 3,605. The Metal index dropped 6.5% to 10,933, and the Bankex was down 4.4% at 7,842. On the other hand, the BSE IT index was up 1.5% at 3,204.
The market breadth was negative, out of 2,862 shares traded,2,246 declined and only 582 advanced today
INDEX SHAKERS...
Jaiprakash Associates, DLF and Tata Steel plunged over 10% each to Rs 207, Rs 366 and Rs 416, respectively.
Reliance Communictions and Reliance Infrastructure shed 8.5% each to Rs 309 and Rs 1,122, respectively.
SBI, Ranbaxy, Tata Motors and Hindalco slipped 6-7% each to Rs 1,695, Rs 266, Rs 365 and Rs 87, respectively.
ONGC, Grasim,ACC, ITC, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Maruti, Sterlite and Larsen & Toubro were down 2.5-5.5% each.
...AND THE MOVERS
Wipro gained over 3% to Rs 406. Infosys and TCS have added around 2.5% to Rs 1,733 and Rs 738, respectively.
OTHER PROMINENT LOSERS...
JSW Steel tumbled 13% to Rs 509.
Religare Enterprises, Jet Airways and IRB Infrastructures slumped 12.3% each.
Ispat, HDIL, Punj LLoyd and Welspun-Gujarat Stahl Rohren dropped 10.5-12% each.
The other losers were Glenmark, Spice Telecommunications and Indiabulls Real Estate down over 10% each.
...AND THE GAINERS
BEML gained 2.4% at Rs 930. Shriram Transport Finance Company, Torrent Power and Crompton Greaves was up 1-2.3% each.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
Unitech topped the value chart with a total turnover of Rs 307.84 crore. It was followed by Suzlon Rs (300.29 crore), Reliance (Rs 233.30 crore), Reliance Capital( Rs 221.18 crore) and Aban Offshore (Rs 193.77 crore).
Dish TV topped the volumes chart with trades of 73.27 million shares. It was followed by Unitech (34 million), Suzlon (23.29 million), Reliance Natural Resources (20.51 million) and Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemical(19.65 million).
