Sensex crashes by 523.67 pts on weaker advice

Mumbai, Feb 6: The Sensex plunged by 523.67 points today to end in the red at 18,139.49 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on sustained heavy offloading by Foreign Institutional Investors (FII's) and some domestic investors.

It was an extremely weak session for the markets as they closed deep in red with rest of Asia. The cues from US were negative. with weak economy data giving rise to concerns over recessionary trend. Asia ended down in the range of 4-6 per cent. Among the top losers were stocks from IT, metal, realty and oil&gas sector.

On the primary markets front, it has been disappointing for Emmar MGF IPO as it has been subscribed only 0.58 times. Most of the bids were at Rs 540/share at the lower end of price band.

All the BSE indices ended deep in red. BSE METAL index crashed steeply by 604.35 points at 16,189.46 points, followed by CG by 349.72 at 16,571.65 points, Realty index by 256.14 to 10,415.09 points, BANKEX index by 247.59 at 10,937.60 points, CD index by 235.59 at 4943.30 points, MID CAP index by 100.55 at 7970.74 points and Tech index by 133.38 at 3418.78 points.

Major stocks led by IT, metal, realty stocks continue to reel under pressure on account of sustained selling pressure in scrips across the sectors. US markets slumped on weak economy data giving rise to concerns over recessionary trend. Asia ended down in the range of 4-6 per cent.

There was bearish phase at the Asian markets, casting their shadow on the Indian bourses today.

An unexpected contraction in the service sector in the US once again sparked fears the economy may sink into recession, hitting Asian stocks. European markets, which opened after Indian markets, were weak.

The 30-share BSE Sensex ended down 523.67 points or 2.81 per cent pc at 18,139.49. Sensex hit a high of 18,274.15 in mid-morning trade. At the day's high, Sensex was down 389.01 points and it touched a low of 17,936.01 in initial trade. At day's low it shed 727.15 points.

The broader CNX S&P Nifty index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) also came down by 161.35 points or 2.94 per cent at 5,322.55 in the closing session.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 6289 crore compared to yesterday's level of Rs 5340 crore.

Liquidity in the secondary market may get a boost from huge refunds that investors have started getting from Reliance Power IPO though it remains to be seen how much money comes to secondary market in the light of immense volatility witnessed on the bourses last month, brokers said.

Software services exporters declined for a second day in a row due to a gloomy economic outlook in the United States, which contributes to more than half of their revenue. Satyam Computer Services was down 6.69 per cent to Rs 408.90 followed by Wipro by 6.01 pc to Rs 425), Infosys by 6.25 pc to Rs 1,510.60 and Tata Consultancy Services by 5.15 pc to Rs 900.55r.

Metal stocks like Sterlite Industries slipped by 5.77 pc to Rs 788.05, followed by National Alluminium Company by 5.78 pc to Rs 389.95, Hindalco Industries by 4.89 pc to Rs 173.05, Steel Authority of India by 4.9 pc to Rs 221.15 and Tata Steel by 2.24 pc to Rs 799.45.

Consumer Durables stocks such as Rajesh Exports crashed by 9.08 pc to Rs 136.60, Titan Industries came down by 8.57 pc to Rs 1,138, Videocon Industries eased by 3.69 pc to Rs 429.90 and Blue Star dropped by 1.97 pc to Rs 485.

Auto stocks skidded on profit booking by local operators. Maruti Suzuki India was down by 4.74 pc to Rs 831, Tata Motors eased by 1.4 pc to Rs 745), Bajaj Auto eased by 3.08 pc to Rs 2,330, Mahindra&Mahindra dropped by 2.15 pc to Rs 665.95 and Hero Honda Motors declined by 1.49 pc to Rs 716.

India's largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries fell 2.44 pc at Rs 2,552.05. As per reports, Reliance Industries (RIL) two wells in D6 block in the Krishna Godvari (KG) basin have hit a technical snag. The loss to wells runs into about USD 175 million. RIL executive, however, said the snags have been rectified and that the problems would not delay production of natural gas from the D6 block, brokers said.

ICICI Bank fell 3.11 pc to Rs 1,152.85. India's largest engineering&construction firm by revenue, Larsen&Toubro fell 1.93 pc to Rs 3,780.60.

However, a few scrips were in limelight on scattered bull support by FIIs as Reliance Communications (RCom) rose 0.68 pc to Rs 681.60.

RCom is reprotedly set to test-launch its direct to home (DTH) services Big TV this week, before a full commercial launch in March this year. According to reports, the company is investing USD 250 million in the first phase for the launch and has already placed orders for over 2 million set-top boxes to cater to the launch, brokers added.

UNI