Mumbai: Benchmark indices snapped two days of rally and witnessed a sharp fall. Both indices washed out Monday's gain on account of a huge profit booking in realty, metal, capital goods, oil, banking and power stocks.
The Nifty closed below the 2,950 level and the Sensex settled below the 9,900 level. Midcap and small cap stocks followed the same trend. Weak global cues also fuelled the negative sentiment.
Heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, BHEL, DLF, SBI, Infosys, ICICI Bank, L&T, SAIL, HDFC and HDFC Bank were leading contributors to today's fall. However, ITC and Cipla closed in positive terrain among index stocks.
The Sensex plunged 696.47 points or 6.61 per cent to 9,839.69 after hitting an intraday low of 9,799.45. The 50-share NSE Nifty touched a low of 2919.45, before closing the day with a loss of 209.6 points or 6.665 at 2938.65. All BSE sectoral indices closed in red.
BSE Midcap Index fell 118.39 points or 3.41 per cent, to settle at 3,356.70 and Small Cap Index lost 100.02 points or 2.51 per cent, to close at 3,888.01.
BSE Realty Index collapsed like a pack of cards, crashed 252.14 points or 10.25 per cent, to end at 2,208.71. Indiabulls Real tumbled 15 per cent. DLF and Unitech lost 10 per cent and 9.5 per cent, respectively.
Metal stocks wiped out gains. SAIL, Sterlite Industries, Tata Steel and Hindalco crumbled 10-11.8 per cent. Metal index fell 481.06 points or 8.42 per cent to 5,233.77.
Power stocks like Suzlon Energy went down 13.8 per cent. GMR Infra, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Power, Tata Power and NTPC fell 6.7-10 per cent. Index lost 147.62 points or 7.75 to 1,769.37.
Capital Goods Index finished with a loss of 587.55 points or 7.24 per cent at 7,530.88. BHEL tanked 9.65 per cent. Punj Lloyd, Praj Industries and L&T plunged 6.4-7.7 per cent.
Profit booking was also seen in oil & gas space; index crashed 458.47 points or 7.18 per cent, to close at 5,922.61. Cairn India, ONGC and Reliance Industries lost 7.4-9.4 per cent. Oil marketing companies like HPCL, BPCL and IOC fell 3.5-6 per cent. Crude December Futures was hovering around USD 60.5 to a barrel on the NYMEX.
Telecom stocks like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communication, MTNL and Idea Cellular tumbled 4-7 per cent.
IT Index plummeted 181 points or 6.43 per cent to 2,634.88. HCL Tech, Satyam, Wipro and Infosys fell 6-9 per cent. TCS was down 3.42 per cent.
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Banking stocks like ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI crashed 6-7.8 per cent. The BSE Bankex went down by 356.99 points or 6.17 per cent to 5,425.50.
Auto stocks lost the road in today's session. Mahindra and Mahindra and Bharat Forge fell 7.5-8 per cent. Maruti Suzuki and Hero Honda lost 4 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively. Auto index fell 117.17 points or 4.3 per cent to 2,609.83.
Healthcare Index plunged 76.29 points or 2.49 per cent to 2,986.31. Matrix Lab, Glenmark, Sun Pharma Advanced, Ranbaxy Labs and Sun Pharma tumbled 3.7-7 per cent.
FMCG closed at 1,949.41, down 25 points or 1.27 per cent over previous close. United Breweries, Dabur India, Marico, United Spirits, Nestle and HUL fell 2-6.8 per cent.
Among the midcap stocks, Sterlite Technologies, Nagarjuna Construction, Mahindra Life, India Infoline, Hind Oil Exploration and Chambal Fertiliser slipped over 11 per cent.
In the small cap space, Emco, KPR Mill, Unity Infraprojects, Orbit Corporation, Swaraj Engines and Aegis Logistics fell 10-14.7 per cent.
Volumes got improved in today's session. Total traded turnover stood at Rs 52,927.06 crore. This includes Rs 8,816.35 crore from NSE cash segment, Rs 40,386.80 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 3,723.91 crore from BSE cash segment.
Market breadth was extremely weak; declines outnumbered advances. About 965 shares have advanced while 2012 shares have declined. Nearly 215 shares remained unchanged.
On the global front, European markets were trading sharply lower. FTSE was down 82 points at 4,321. CAC and DAX fell 80 points and 93 points to 3,425 and 4,931, respectively, at 4:20 hrs IST.
UK home sales declined to lowest level in 3 decades. Vodafone cut its full year sales forecast for second time in four months; the company said that FY09 sales will be 38.8-39.7 billion pounds versus initial forecast of 39.8-40.7 billion pounds.
The Dow Jones Futures was down 80 points at 8,807 and the Nasdaq futures fell 16.50 points to 1,240, at 4:20 hrs IST.
Asian markets closed weak. Hang Seng tumbled 4.77 per cent and Straits Times lost 4.14 per cent. Nikkei, Kospi and Taiwan plunged 2-3 per cent. Shanghai fell 1.66 per cent and Jakarta was down by 0.31 per cent.
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