Sensex follows global cues, crashes 800 pts

Mumbai, Oct 10: The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex witnessed a southward movement for the fifth consecutive day on Friday, Oct 10, as it declined by 800.51 points and ended in red at 10,527.85 points from it last close on the back of global sell-off and dismal Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for August 2008.

The National Stock Exchange Nifty index also quoted below the 3,500 barrier and declined by 233.70 to settle at 3,279.95 points from it last finish of 3,513.65. The Sensex has plummeted steeply by 2,527.82 points in the last five days.

Brokers said that IT stocks suffered due to downward revision in guidance in dollar terms by IT bellwether Infosys Technologies.

Markets have completely shattered and washed out on account of scary global cues and weak IIP data, despite of RBI's initiative to inject around Rs 60,000 crore liquidity in the banking system in the form of cutting CRR by 150 bps, brokers said.

Metal, realty, capital goods, power, banking, and oil stocks have been affected severely. Midcap and small cap stocks took huge beating on the bourses as well.

In early as well as late trade, it was looking like the Sensex would hit lower circuit, but fortunately, it did not happen.

Lower circuit for the Sensex was fixed at 1,275 points and for the Nifty at 390 points. The Sensex tumbled 1,088.6 points and the Nifty fell by 314.7 points in the intra-day trade to hit a low of 10,239.76 and 3,198.95, respectively.

Banking stocks were volatile reacting to a slew of news such as cut in cash reserve rate, slowdown in industrial production and fall in inflation. Reliance Communications declined by 22.65 per cent, Reliance Infrastructure lost 20.09 per cent and Jaiprakash Associates shed 18.36 per cent.

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chief C B Bhave today said there was no unusual activity in the stock market. He further said there has been no shorting by institutions in cash markets. Stocks fell across the globe despite worldwide central bank measures to stave off a crisis. Bank bailouts, liquidity injections and interest rate cuts across the world have failed to quell investor anxiety with Asian stocks tumbling today, following overnight setback in US stocks.

Back home, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today cut the cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) second time in the week. The central bank cut CRR by 100 basis points after 50 basis point cut earlier in the week.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 5,073 crore today as compared to a turnover of Rs 5,135.12 crore on October 8, as yesterday was a holiday. Total turnover traded stood very low at Rs 68,100.82 crore.

This includes Rs 14,727.85 crore from NSE Cash segment, Rs 48,279 crore from NSE F &O and balance Rs 5,093.97 crore from BSE cash segment.

UNI