• Home
• /
• Business

Sensex plunges 834 points

The market had witnessed recovery from lower level in mid-afternoon trade after State Bank of India, India's biggest commercial bank announced a cut in price lending rate by 25 basis points. However, the recovery proved short-lived and the market plunged again in late trade.

Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Power was trading at Rs372.50 on the BSE, down 17.22 per cent over IPO price of Rs450. It debuted at Rs547.80, a premium of Rs21.73 per cent from the IPO price. Volumes in the stock were high. On the BSE, 64 million crore shares changed hands on this counter. Marketmen had initially expected the price to double on debut, but stock market turmoil and risk averse attitude of investoRshas pulled down the premium to about Rs75 to Rs150 above the IPO price on debut. The Reliance Power IPO was over-subscribed 73 times.

All the sectoral indices on the BSE, barring IT index, were in the red. The BSE Mid-Cap index was down 5.42 per cent at 7,219.83 while the BSE Small-Cap was down 4.84 per cent at 9,440.10. BSE Power Index was the worst performer closing 8.61 lower while BSE IT Index ended 0.13 per cent higher at 3,848.16. The market breadth was poor on the BSE with 243 advances and 2459 declines while 35 stocks remained unchanged. BSE clocked a turnover of Rs76.59 billion compared to Friday's Rs63.50 billion. Nifty February futures were at 4781.10, a discount of 75.90 points as compared to spot closing of 4857.

The NSE's futures & options (F&O) segment turnover was Rs412.57 billion, which was higher than Rs394.21 billion on Friday.

At the closing, the 30-share BSE Sensitive Index (sensex) showed hefty losses of 833.98 points or 4.78 per cent at 16630.91. Sensex shed 1007.15 points at the day's low of 16,457.74, hit in afternoon trade. 25 out of 30 sensex stocks were in red at the close.

The CNX S&P Nifty was down 263.35 points or 5.14 per cent at 4857. The Sensex shed 3.71 per cent in last three trading session ended Friday to 17464.89 from 18139.49 on Wednesday.

Having emerged as one of the top performers in the equity markets in 2007, India became the fourth worst performer among all the emerging markets in the first month of 2008, with a loss of close to 16 per cent, according to financial market data provider Standard and Poor's. The global stock markets lost a whopping $5.2 billion as bearish sentiment prevailed across both emerging and developed markets to mark one of the worst ever starts to a new year, S&P said.

Market leader Reliance Industries fell 6.98 per cent at Rs2252.80. Larsen & Toubro fell 5.45 per cent to Rs3335. Among the sensex large cap losers, Reliance Energy slumped 21.95 per cent to Rs1532.30, Reliance Communication slipped 9.61 per cent to Rs584, ITC (7.77 per cent), NTPC (7.53 per cent), Mahindra & Mahindra (7.12 per cent), Reliance Industries (6.98 per cent) and State Bank of India (6.67 per cent). Among medium cap sensex loseRswere Hindustan Unilever skid 7.44 per cent to Rs196 and Mahindra & Mahindra shed 7.41 per cent to Rs597.15. Satyam Computer (up 3.63 per cent), Infosys Technologies (up 1.53 per cent), Wipro (up 1.08 per cent), and Maruti Suzuki (0.39 per cent) were the only Sensex gainers.

The BSE Power index fell 8.61 per cent at 3414.66. Reliance Energy, which holds 45 per cent in Reliance Power, shed 19.40 per cent to Rs1,582.30. Torrent Power slumped 15.88 per cent to Rs140.60, GVK Power & Infrastructure fell 8.02 per cent to Rs59.60, Tata Power skid 12.26 per cent to Rs1174.10, CESC skid 6.60 per cent to Rs498.60 and Power Grid Corporation of India fell 7.10 per cent to Rs98.10.

The BSE Bankex fell 4.08 per cent to 9,744.88. ICICI Bank fell 2.91 per cent to Rs1035.70. Centurion Bank of Punjab slumped 7.02 per cent to Rs48.35, Kotak Mahindra Bank slipped 7.02 per cent to Rs798.90, Andhra Bank fell 6.24 per cent to Rs84.10, Bank of Baroda slipped 5.49 per cent to Rs364.90 and Axis Bank fell 5.38 per cent to Rs928.10.

The BSE Realty index fell 6.29 per cent to 9,168.33. DLF fell 2.59 per cent to Rs795.55, Unitech slumped 10.41 per cent to Rs314.50, Indiabulls Real Estate slipped 3.49 per cent to Rs623.40, Phoenix Mills skid 10.55 per cent to Rs2279 and Omaxe fell 7.78 per cent to Rs248.40.

The BSE IT index rose 0.13 per cent to 3,848.16.

Satyam Computer jumped 3.38 per cent to Rs423.85, Infosys Technologies moved up 0.48 per cent to Rs1558.75, TCS gained 0.36 per cent to Rs903.20 and Wipro inched up 0.25 per cent to Rs423.50.