Sensex falls to 15 month low at 12,676.19

{image-sensex, big_15072008.jpg news.oneindia.in}Mumbai, Jul 15: The benchmark Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange on Tuesday, July 15, crashed to a 15-month low at 12,676.19, with a massive loss of 654.32 points, on heavy selling pressure across the sector due to negative global cues and political uncertainty in the country.

The Sensex hit a day's low of 12,605 before closing at 12,676.19 points, which was a 15-month low. It opened with a downward gap of 263.43 points at 13,067.08. The broader based S &P CNX Nifty index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) also tumbled 178.60 points or 4.42 per cent to close at 3,861.10. It resumed flat at 4039.30 and later recorded day's low at 3835.50 points.

Fears of more failures of small banks in the United States after last week's collapse of US mortgage lender IndyMac Bancorp Inc, also took a toll of equities across Asia and Europe today.

All the sectoral indices on BSE posted losses. Shares from banking, capital goods and metal sectors collapsed. Ranbaxy Labs plunged on high volumes for the second straight day. The market breadth was weak.

The market breadth was weak on BSE with 2091 shares declining as compared to 540 that advanced. 59 remained unchanged.

The BSE indices also suffered a setback with the METAL index crashing steeply by 671.55 points to close low at 12,225.64 points followed by BANKEX index by 462.52 to 5508, CG index by 564.26 to 10,175.75 points, OILS &GAS index by 307.37 to 8677.70 points, PSU index by 266.03 points to 5821.96, REALTY index by 259.08 to 4503.45 points, SML-CAP by 209.16 to 6430.90 points, HC index by 170.67 to 3909.25 points, MID-Cap index by 167.29 to 5,163.51 points, TECK index by 96.94 to 2789.17 points, AUTO index by 89.21 points to 3477.28 points, IT index by 86.02 to 3589.57 points and FMCG index by 76.89 to 1881.40 points.

Total turnover traded by markets stood at Rs 59,029.17 crore.

This includes Rs 10,611.71 crore from NSE Cash segment, Rs 44,122.92 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 4,294.54 crore from BSE Cash segment.

India's largest pharma company, in terms of sales, Ranbaxy tumbled 14.90 per cent to Rs 405 on high volumes of 71.66 lakh shares. It was the top loser from the Sensex pack. As per foreign brokerage house UBS, the stock could erode 50 per cent if the deal with Daiichi is called off. The stock continued to suffer losses for the second straight day after plunging 10.86 per cent yesterday on reports the US government has levelled serious allegations against the company.

The Bankex tumbled 8.39 pc to 5,469.85 and was the biggest loser among the sectoral indices on BSE.

India's second largest private sector bank in terms of net profit HDFC Bank plunged 11.47 per cent to Rs 914.25. India's largest private sector bank in terms of net profit ICICI Bank tumbled 9.11 per cent to Rs 527, off its 52-week low of Rs 525 hit in intra-day trade.

India's largest state-run bank in terms of net profit State Bank of India lost 7.93 per cent to Rs 1158. The bank has reportedly recovered Rs 2000 crore in bad loans during April-June 2008 period.

India's largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries was down 3.75 per cent at Rs 1,970.

Metal shares slipped on selling pressure. Hindalco was down 8.10 per cent to Rs 138.40 followed by Hindustan Zinc by 6.87 per cent to Rs 542, Sterlite Industries by 6.42 per cent to Rs 639.30, Tata Steel by 5.72 per cent to Rs 645 and Steel Authority of India by 5.52 per cent to Rs 131.75.

Real estate stocks cracked on renewed selling. DLF declined by 5.48 per cent to Rs 430.80, Unitech came down 6.81 per cent to Rs 152.50, Purvankara Projects eased 7.04 per cent to Rs 166.95, and Omaxe dropped 6.16 per cent to Rs 121.05.

Bharat Heavy Electricals also came down 6.95 per cent to Rs 1368, followed by Larsen&Toubro by 4.97 per cent to Rs 2272.70, Reliance Infrastructure by 7.45 per cent to Rs 757 and HDFC by 7.39 per cent to Rs 1790.

India's largest cellular services provider, in terms of market capitalisation, Bharti Airtel lost 4.66 per cent to Rs 702.50. South African mobile phone operator MTN Group has reportedly sent feelers to Bharti Airtel for reviving talks, if it fails to clinch a deal with Reliance Communications.

Reliance Communication, the country's second largest cellular services provider in terms of market capitalisation, plunged 7.92 per cent to Rs 403.05.

IT pivotals suffered a setback with Infosys Technologies declining by 1.25 per cent to Rs 1536.45, off day's high of Rs 1578.65, followed by TCS down by 3.50 per cent at Rs 742, off day's high of Rs 785, Wipro by 7.88 per cent at Rs 372.55, off day's high of Rs 409.95, and Satyam Computer Services by 2.26 per cent to Rs 400, off day's high of Rs 424.85.

Ranbaxy Laboratories was the top traded counter on BSE with turnover of Rs 303.91 crore followed by Reliance Industries (Rs 278.82 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 261.05 crore), Infosys (Rs 168.11 crore).

UNI