Sensex plunges by 323.48 points on heavy sell off

Mumbai, Sept 12 (UNI) Extending the downward trend for the fourth consecutive day today, the Sensex plunged by 323.48 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange to close at 14,000.81 on sell off pressure across the board.

Sensex at one stage nose-dived below the 14K level to touch a day's low of 13,933.87, shedding over 390.42 points from its previous close of 14,324.29, but it recovered slightly in the last hour before closing as some investors entered at the lower levels.

Similarly, the broader based Nifty tanked 90.15 points to a day's low of 4,200.15 from its previous close of 4,290.30 and then ended at a loss of 61.85 points at 4,228.45 in late trade.

Index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Infosys, ICICI Bank, ONGC and HDFC and Reliance Infrastructure were hit badly, pulling down the market into deep red, despite the positive datas of inflation and Index of Industrial Production (IIP), brokers said.

The bourses completely ignored positive fundamentals, including IIP numbers, and good global markets. WPI-based Inflation was at 12.10 per cent for the week ended August 30, 2008 as compared to 12.34 in the previous week, as per government data released yesterday after market hours. The IIP was at 7.1 per cent for the month ended July 30, which was more-than-expected as compared to the previous month's 5.4 per cent, marketmen observed.

Reliance Industries (RIL) shareS plunged sharply, for the second straight day, on huge volumes and touched new low of the year as well as 52-week low of 1,918.10 on the BSE, as brokerages have downgraded earnings and price targets to align with new political and business realities. RIL closed 3.31 per cent down at 1,931.40.

Infosys Technologies dropped 6pc or Rs 104.9, to settle at 1,644.10 as brokerages downgraded earnings.

Total turnover was very high today at Rs 75,013.72 crore that included Rs 12,437.57 crore from NSE Cash segment, Rs 57,492.96 crore from NSE F &O and Rs 5083.19 crore from BSE Cash segment.

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