Dalal Street catches cold as US sneezes

The market witnessed heavy selling amid weak sentiments, as the US financial system took a turn for the worse after Lehman Brothers' (the fourth-largest investment bank of the USA,) filed for bankruptcy, troubled insurer American International Group (AIG) sought Federal Reserve’s help to shore up its revenues and as the Bank of America agreed to buy Merrill Lynch.

After resuming 300 points lower at 13,666 extensive corrections in heavyweight, realty, information technology and teck stocks assured that the 30-stock Sensex remains in the negative territory. Fall in Asian markets followed by weak opening in European markets also worsened the fall and dragged the Sensex to the day's low of 13,151, down 850 points from the yesterday's close. Major European indices like FTSE (London Stock Exchange), CAC 40 index (French Stock Exchange) and DAX Times index (Germany Stock Exchange) shed 3-4% each, thereby adding pressure on the domestic indices. The Sensex finally ended the session at 13,531, down 470 points, while the Nifty shed 156 points to close at 4,073.

The market breadth was extremely weak. Of the 2,662 stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 2,262 stocks declined, 360 stocks advanced and 35 stocks ended unchanged. The sectoral indices were largely weak. The BSE Reality index lost 7.65%, the BSE IT index declined by 5.51%, the Teck index fell 4.74%, the BSE Metal index tumbled 4.51% and the BSE Power index shed 4.38%. The remaining indices also closed with losses of 1-3% each.

Several heavyweights took a sharp tumble on late selling pressure. Reliance Infrastructure tanked 9.72% at Rs838.95, Satyam Computer Services fell by 9.45% at Rs368.15, Ranbaxy Laboratories dropped 7.60% at Rs419.45, DLF declined by 7.54% at Rs432.60, JP Associates slumped by 6.51% at Rs147.30, ONGC lost 6.01% at Rs961.30, Tata Consultancy Services slipped by 5.74% at Rs761.80, Reliance Communications dipped 5.68% at Rs368.95, Tata Motors shed 5.16% at Rs390.60 and Hindalco lost 5.12% at Rs114.85. Select counters, however, ended in the green. Maruti Suzuki India surged 2.80% at Rs723.40, HDFC advanced by 1.16% at Rs2204.45 and ACC moved up by 0.61% at Rs594.15.

Over 1.66 crore shares of Reliance Natural Resources changed hands on the BSE followed by IFCI (1.32 crore shares), KS Oils (0.84 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (0.81 crore shares) and Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals (0.75 lakh shares).

Valuewise, Reliance Capital registered a turnover of Rs426 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Industries (Rs354 crore), Reliance Infrastructure (Rs146 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs137 crore) and Larsen &Toubro (Rs134 crore).