Global turmoil drags Sensex 328 points lower

Global recession concerns and financial crisis in Europe led panic selling across the world. The Sensex plunged 328 points and the Nifty lost 99 points

Major headlines

IT shares take heavy beating on US recession fears

ONGC beats RIL to become India's second-most valued firm

FY12 GDP growth seen at over 8%: Ahluwalia



Indian indices

The Indian shares witnessed a bloodbath today on the back of global meltdown. Growing worries that the US economy was sliding back into recession and fears of debt crisis spreading in Europe led the investors to book profit across the board. The Sensex slipped below the 16000 mark for the first time since May 2010 and the Nifty fell below the 4800 level.

Lingering worries about a slowdown in India's economic growth and profitability of domestic companies due to surging interest rates also weighed on investor sentiment. The Realty index bucked the trend in today’s trade. Technology stocks were the major draggers today.

Sensex movements: Global jitters dragged the Sensex 232 points lower at 16238 in the opening trade. Later the index showed some recovery and touched the day’s high of 16288 in early trade. Then the index continued with its downfall led by heavy losses in the global indices and selling across the board, which pushed the index to new lows of 15988 in the afternoon trade. The Sensex swung 300 points between day’s high and low. The Sensex plunged 328 points to close at 16142 and the Nifty lost 99 points to settle at 4846.

Market sentiment:

The market breadth was very bad. Of the 2961 stocks traded on the BSE, 773 (26.11%) rose, 2083 (70.35%) fell and 105 (3.55%) remained unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

Out of 13 sectoral indices, only BSE Realty survived in weak environment and surged by 0.77%. Top worst performers - BSE IT declined by 4.41%, BSE CG fell by 4.17% and BSE TECk slipped by 3.70%. Rest lost in the range of 0.39-1.90%.

In 'A' group pack, major gainers - IRB Infrastructure Developers up by 7.62%, Ashok Leyland rose by 6.28% and JSW Steel surged by 4.96%. Top losers - Voltas down by 10.02%, Apollo Tyres declined by 6.97% and Educomp Solutions fell by 6.19%.

Viewing volumes

Wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy was traded the most, with over 0.97 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. It was followed by India's largest listed and highest credit rated gold loan company - Manappuram Finance (0.37 crore shares), a Jaypee Group firm - Jaiprakash Associates (0.30 crore shares), India's second largest real estate developer - Unitech (0.27 crore shares) and an integrated infrastructure development company - Lanco Infratech (0.25 crore shares).

Global Indices:

The European stocks fell on Friday, with investor sentiment mired in continued concern about the European debt crisis, coupled with data indicating an almost stagnant global economy.

All the Asian equities ended in deep red on Friday on account of US recession fears and an earthquake that rattled northeast Japan in late trade. There was also a bout of fresh selling when a magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit northeastern Japan. Nikkei fell to its lowest close in five months.

The US stock index futures pointed to a sharply weaker open for equities on the Wall Street on Friday.