Sensex crashes by 506.08 points

Mumbai, Jun 9 (UNI) The Sensex today plunged by 506.08 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange to end in the red at 15,066.10 on panic selling pressure across the sectors due to the surging global crude oil prices.

The key benchmark indices also slumped because of the setback in US stocks. The BSE Sensex fell below 15,000 mark at 14,846.18 for the first time since March 19,2008, in intra-day trade.

The S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE was also down by 125.85 points.

The markets are reeling under heavy selling pressure. The Nifty is hovering around 4500 and the Sensex around 15000 levels. Selling continued in realty, power, technology, capital goods and auto stocks. Major pharma and metal stocks are witnessing some buying interest and giving a bit of support. On the global front, European markets have not seen any major impact from weak US markets cues, and were trading flat.

Except the BSE HealthCare index, all the other sectoral indices on BSE were in red. The market breadth was extremely weak. IT, realty, banking and oil&gas stocks were worst hit in today's market fall.

Oil prices surged by their biggest one-day gain ever on Friday, June 6 2008, rocketing to a new record high above USD 139 a barrel, taking this year's gains to 44 per cent. Oil prices edged lower to USD 137.7 today.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined by 506.08 points or 3.25 per cent at 15,066.10 at the end of the session. It resumed in the red at 15,115.27 points. At the day's low of 14846.18 hit during mid-morning trade, the Sensex lost 726 points from its last finish.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also quoted below 4600 barrier and ended negative at 4500.95 points, 125.85 points down from it last finish of 4627.80 points. It hit a low of 4411.60 today in mid-morning trade, falling to a low of 4448.50 hit on January 22, 2008.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 5039 crore today compared to a turnover of Rs 5245.26 crore on June 6.

The market breadth was extremely weak on BSE with 475 shares advancing as compared to 2167 that declined. 49 remained unchanged.

From the 30-share Sensex pack, 27 fell.

Realty Index was hit hardest and underperformed other indices.

This sector has corrected to a large extent, with Index falling 7.38 per cent or 458.08 points to settle at 5,752.22 while OIL&GAS index also crashed by 397.01 points to close low at 11,635.63 points followed by SML CAP index by 279.53 to 7416.54 points, BANKEX index by 232.96 to 7033.32 points, IT index by 193.61 to 4404.98 points, PSU index by 196.77 to 6469.82 points, MID-CAP index by 179.82 to 6170.33 points, METAL index by 125.78 to 15,389.61 points,TECK index by 108.99 to 3388.89 points, AUTO index by 103.68 to 4123.64 points and Power index by 80.74 to close at 2619.28 points.

MORE UNI AR OBB SM1728