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Sensex tumbles 334 points

MUMBAI — Equities met with broadbased selling for the second day yesterday. Political concerns and weak Asian markets weighed on the investor sentiments. Banking, realty and capital goods stocks were hurt the most in today's trade.

All the sectoral indices on the BSE ended in red. Asian markets, which opened before Indian markets, ended on a weak note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit its lowest level in three months on Wednesday, as worries about a weak US economy compounded by credit sector concerns dragged down shares in banks, autos and transport firms. However, European markets, which had opened on a weak note, recovered during the course of the trading session after unexpected news of a British shopping spree last month offset early gloom about the banking sector.

The 30-share BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex) opened with a negative gap of 172 points at 15,250 owing to weakness in global markets and remained in a red for entire day due to selling pressure on realty, banking, capital goods and power stocks. The Sensex moved in a range of 207 points between a low of 15,052 and a high of 15,259. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 334 points at 15,088. The NSE Nifty ended with a loss of 78 points at 4,504. Nifty June-end futures were at 4486, a discount of 18.25 points compared with the spot closing. The BSE clocked a turnover of Rs46.55 billion from Rs61.83 billion Wednesday. NSE's futures & options segment turnover was Rs426.96 billion from Rs474.41 billion Wednesday.

The markets breadth was negative - out of 2,717 stocks traded, 1,804 declined, 842 advanced and 71 were unchanged. In the 30-member list of Sensex shares, 3 advanced while 27 declined. Ranbaxy which was top gainer yesterday, turned top loser of the day, tumbling 7.7 per cent to Rs552. Reliance Infrastructure plunged 5.7 per cent to Rs1,012. BHEL declined over 5 per cent to Rs1,423. Larsen & Toubro slipped 4.8 per cent at Rs2,617. ICICI Bank dropped 4.1 per cent to Rs753. HDFC Bank lost nearly 4 per cent at Rs1,121. SBI was down 3.7 per cent at Rs1,301. HDFC shed 3.3 per cent at Rs2,238. ONGC declined 3.1 per cent to Rs853. DLF was down 2.9 per cent at Rs478. Tata Motors slipped 2.7 per cent to Rs503. Jaiprakash Associates lost 2.6 per cent to Rs177. Maruti fell 2.4 per cent to Rs746. Reliance was trading at Rs2,245 - down 1.7 per cent. TCS and Ambuja Cements were down 1.6 per cent each at Rs886 and Rs89, respectively.

Grasim, Hindalco and Hindustan Unilever were the other major losers. On the brighter side, Mahindra & Mahindra gained 1.7 per cent to Rs580. Wipro added 0.7 per cent to Rs488. Cipla was trading at Rs217 - up marginally 0.2 per cent.

Corporate news scenario: Reliance Infrastructure lost 5.68 per cent to Rs1012.35 following reports the company is planning to invest $7 billion in the next three years to expand its engineering and construction business in India and acquire assets overseas. Ranbaxy Labs declined 7.68 per cent at Rs552.25 after the company agreed to keep generic versions of the Pfizer's cholesterol pill Lipitor off the US market for extra 20 months. As per the agreement, Ranbaxy will not sell a generic of Lipitor, the world's best-selling drug, until November 2011. Debutant Niraj Cement Structurals settled at Rs190.15 on BSE, a minuscule premium of 0.08 per cent over the IPO price of Rs190. Earlier today, the stock debuted at Rs185, a discount of 2.63 per cent over issue price.

Anu Labs led the value chart with a turnover of Rs3.76 billion followed by Niraj Cements (Rs3.38 bn), Ranbaxy Labs (Rs3.03 bn), Reliance Capital (Rs1.89 bn) and Reliance Petroleum (Rs1.29 bn). Niraj Cements topped the volume chart with trades of around 17.7 million shares followed by Chambal Fertilisers (10.4 mn), Anu Labs (8.5 mn), IFCI (8.2 mn) and Reliance Petroleum (7.2 mn).

The BSE Mid-Cap index fell 2.04 per cent to 6,230.17 and BSE Small-Cap index shed 1.48 per cent to 7,660.42. Both the indices outperformed the Sensex. Banking shares witnessed selling pressure under the lead provided by ICICI Bank which dropped 4.08 per cent at Rs753.30. Axis Bank (down 4.67 per cent at Rs718.10), HDFC Bank (down 3.93 per cent at Rs1120.60), and State Bank of India (down 3.69 per cent at Rs1301) were other prominent losers. The Bankex underperformed the Sensex, falling 4.01 per cent to 7,013.18. Sell-off was also witnessed in the capital goods stocks. Punj Lloyd (down 5.34 per cent at Rs252.85).