Sensex crashes 550 points, falls below 12,000

Just in: Sensex on Monday, Oct 6 crashed 550 points and settles down at 2 years low of 12,000 points. Nifty crashes 170 points.
12:43 PM 10/6/2008

Mumbai, Oct 6: The key benchmark Sensex of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) crashed by 214.83 points to 12,284.49 in the opening session on Monday, Oct 3, from its previous close of 12,526.32, on sustained heavy offloading by bear operators in view of bearish trend in Asian markets. Similarly, the Nifty of Natinal Stock Exchange (NSE) also opened low at 3,817.30 points from its last finish. Brokers said ''Markets have opened sharply lower following weak global cues. Selling pressure is seen in metal, realty, telecom, power, capital goods, oil & gas and banking stocks. Nifty is trading at lowest level since March 20, 2007.'' Select top heavyweight stocks were witnessing huge selling pressure led by fall in realty, metal, power, capital goods, telecom, technology and banking stocks.

Mid-cap and small-cap stocks also plunged in line with markets.

On the global front, the Asian markets plunged between 3-5 per cent, putting pressure on the Indian bourses.

Reliance Industries, L&T, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Tata Steel, DLF, ONGC, Reliance Communication and BHEL were top contributors to this fall.

Later, the Sensex fell 446.88 points to 12,079.44 and the Nifty index also lost 139.50 points to 3,678.80 points. Meanwhile, the Sensex recorded the day's high and low at 12,284.49 and 12,077.65 points respectively, and Nifty index registered the day's high at 3,820.50 and low at 3,674.10 points. BSE Midcap Index plunged 3.8 pc and Small Cap Index fell 3.4 pc.

Among the top losers were Jaiprakash Associates, DLF, Tata Steel and Cairn India. However, Tata Motors, Maruti and Zee Entertainment gained.

Reliance Industries fell 1.53 pc to Rs 1,733.90. Metal stocks declined on falling global metal prices. BSE Metal index declined 4.13 pc to 8,069.18 and was the major loser from the sectoral indices on BSE. Sterlite Industries was down 7.73 pc to Rs 365.15, followed by National Aluminum Company by 6.06 pc to Rs 328.05, Tata Steel by 5.03 pc to Rs 374, Steel Authority of India by 3.53 pc to Rs 110.60, Hindalco Industries by 1.48 pc to Rs 96.25 and Hindustan Zinc by 1.93 pc to Rs 397. Banking stocks declined. ICICI Bank came down by 2.52 pc to Rs 491.80, HDFC Bank dropped 1.83 pc to Rs 1,248.55 and State Bank of India eased 1.33 pc to Rs 1,460.

UNI