Sensex plunges by 287.70 pts, Nifty down by 115 pts

Mumbai, Jan 10: The benchmark Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) plunged by 287.70 points to close at 20,582.08 on sustained profit booking in blue-chip stocks. After hitting the all-time intraday high at 21,206.77, the Sensex slid to a day's low of 20,530.07, shed more than 600 points, before finally closing with the largest drop this year, triggered by intense selling presure in the late trading session.

Similarly, broader based Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange resistered the biggest fall of the year by taking at dip of 130 points before closing, after a slight recovery, at a loss of 115 points, or 1.83 per cent, at 6,156.98 from its previous close of 6,272.42. The Market witnessed a complete reversal of the trend, as it lost ground in late trade from an initial surge to a record high. The decline was across the board. Consumer durables, PSU, FMCG and Metal stocks were the worst hit. However, Bank stocks survived the fall, traders said.

The market breadth, which was positive in the early trade, tumbled in the late afternoon trading session. The market breadth was weak on BSE with 365 shares advancing as compared to 2530 that came down and 17 remained unchanged. The BSE Mid-Cap index fell 3.37 pc to close at 9,440.45, while BSE Small-Cap ended down 3.82pc to 12,858.63. BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 9082 crore compared to Rs 9669 crore the previous day. European and Asian markets traded with a negaitve gap today and US markets ended in deep red yesterday as further cut in key interest rates are expected this month.

All the sectoral indices on BSE, except Bankex, ended with a negative gap today. Cosumer durables, FMCG, Metals and PSU plunged 3.76, 3.64, 3.36 and 3.15 per cent respectively. Consumers Goods, IT, oil& gas and power stocks ended with a loss of 2 to 2.5 per cent in late trade.

Frontline stocks Reliance Industries shed 0.39 pc to Rs 3020 and Infosys Technologies fell 4.08 pc to Rs 1591. However, ICICI Bank galloped 3.48 pc to Rs 1356 on reports the bank will list at least 4 arms starting with ICICI Securities in next 6 months though its board is yet to decide on securities arm listing.

Among other major losers, Hindalco Industries slipped 4.56 pc to Rs 203, Tata Steel shed 4.10pc to Rs 854, NTPC gave away 3.99pc to Rs 266.10, Reliance Energy skid 4.06pc to Rs 2461.25, and ACC fell 3.61pc to Rs 935.

UNI