Sensex dips on US recession fears

Renewed fears that the US economy might enter into recession after the announcement of weak US manufacturing data followed by record oil prices triggered major sell-off in major Asian markets. Oil reached a record $100 a barrel on Wednesday and gold soared to its all-time high of $861 an ounce. Mirroring the same the Sensex had a gap-down opening at 20,404. However, the Sensex shrugged off the global weakness and bounced back from its early lows with oil & gas and power stocks in lead. The Sensex touched the day's high of 20,520 by mid-morning trades. But, the market gave up its gains due to profit booking in heavyweights, consumer durables, information technology and pharma stocks. As trading progressed the Sensex lost its strength and slipped into the negative territory to touch the day's low of 20,294. The Sensex pared some losses towards the close, but sustained selling in index pivotal stocks kept the index in the negative territory. The Sensex finally closed the session by shedding 120 points at 20,345, while the Nifty ended on a flat note at 6,179.

Market breadth was slightly positive. Of the 2,954 stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 1,612 stocks advanced, 1,322 stocks declined and 20 stocks ended unchanged. All sectoral indices ended weak. BSE IT index dropped 1.96% at 4,364 followed by BSE CD index (down 1.94% at 6,765), BSE Bankex index (down 1.68% at 11,670) and BSE HC index (down 1.57% at 4,397). However, BSE Power index was the star performer and surged 3.17% at 4,806 followed by BSE PSU index (up 2.20% at 11,011) and the BSE Oil & Gas index (up 1.58% at 13,602).

A steep fall in select heavyweights dragged the markets down. Grasim dropped 4.03% at Rs3,604, ICICI Bank tumbled 3.03% at Rs1,228, Wipro slumped 3.03% at Rs496, ITC shed 3.01% at Rs215, TCS declined 2.95% at Rs1,018, M&M fell 2.83% at Rs836,Satyam Computer lost 2.31% at Rs426 and Hindalco slipped by 2.12% at Rs213. However, select front-line counters attracted buying support. NTPC jumped 7.56% at Rs277, Reliance Energy surged 6.42% at Rs2,517, HLL moved up by 3.51% at Rs223, ONGC advanced 2.88% at Rs1,306 and Reliance Industries added 1.44% at Rs2,903.

Over 11.72 crore Burnpur Cement shares changed hands on the BSE followed by GV Films (3.16 crore shares), RNRL (2.58 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (1.34 crore shares) and Ispat Industries (1.09 crore shares).

Valuewise, RNRL registered a turnover of Rs521 crore followed by Burnpur Cement (Rs462 crore), Reliance Energy (Rs395 crore), BGR Energy (Rs395 crore) and Reliance Petroleum (Rs313 crore).