Biggest ever fall on Sensex by 826 points

Mumbai, May 18: It was the darkest afternoon in the history of the Indian stock market as the investors' panic marked the biggest ever fall on the stock markets by over 860 points due to meltdown in global indices.

The 30 share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE) closed around seven per cent 826 points down at 11,391 points as compared to the last close of 12,218 yesterday.

Today's fall was bigger than more than 700 points crash on May 17,2004.

Earlier in the morning the markets began on a weaker note on global cues and the Sensex had fallen by 600 points to a low of 11,618 points around 1125 hrs.

Then there was 150 points recovery towards the afternoon from days low but there was another wave which dipped the markets by over 860 points around 1500 hrs to days low of 11,350 level.

The National Stock Exchange(NSE) S&P CNX Nifty closed 6.77 per cent or 246 points down at 3,388 points as compared to the last close of 3,635 points.

Earlier Nifty dipped to a intra-day low of 3,365.90 points down by 269.20 points around 1500 hrs.

Metal sector was the worst hit during the day as the BSE Metal index fell around 12 per cent.

Tata Steel, Hindalco, SAIL, Sterlite Industries, NALCO fell by 17 to 10 per cent.

The big fall of around seven per cent in the benchmark index was on the back of losses in the global markets led by lower closing of the US and the Japanese markets on concerns of rising interest rates and inflation.

The New York Stock Exchange(NYSE) Composite index fell by 2.24 per cent, Nasdaq fell by 1.50 per cent, Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 1.88 per cent and Japanese Nikkei fell by 1.30 per cent.

Sensex touched an intra-day low of 11,330.45 point around 1500 hrs falling by 888 points during the day before closing at 11,391 points. The 14 per cent fall in the Tata Steel fourth quarter(Q4) results as compared to the last year did make matters worse for the markets in the afternoon as it was already reeling under severe pressure from the metal sector.

Tata Steel closed 10.91 per cent down at Rs 545.95, poorer by Rs 67; Hindalco closed down by 11.97 per cent at Rs 191.95.

But the mayhem on the Dalal Street was across the board, small and mighty all fell in a panic selling.

Index heavy weight Reliance Industries closed down by 7.58 per cent at Rs 1,004.70; ONGC closed lower by 6.43 per cent at Rs 1,348.70; ITC fell by 6.69 per cent at Rs 191.15; Hindustan Lever was down by 6.12 per cent to Rs 258.50.

Maruti Udyog was also down by 10.08 per cent to Rs 819.45 and Reliance too fell by 10.44 per cent to Rs 535.50.

Cement stock were also badly hit, ACC fell by 12.08 per cent to Rs 798.40; Gujarat Ambuja Cements fell by 9.50 per cent to Rs 98.60 and Grasim Industries was down by 8.53 per cent to Rs 1,985.95.

The minimum damage was done to Hero Honda which fell by just 2.25 per cent to Rs 873.90;Tata Power was another stock that suffered lesser damage of 3.06 per cent closing at Rs 547.95.

The few gainers on the Sensex were Adani Export up by 2.44 per cent to Rs 188.75 and Glaxo was up by 0.13 per cent to Rs 590.

The market breadth was overwhelmingly negative with 2,241 scrips declining as against 288 scrips advancing out of 2,557 scrips traded on the BSE.

On the Sensex all the 30 scrips ended in the red.

The BSE Metal index fell by 11.37 per cent to close at 9,199.51 points, registering a fall of 1,180 points. Most of the metal scrips fell by more than 10 per cent. Besides more than 10 per cent fall in Tata Steel and Hindalco, Sterlite Industries was worst hit, down by 16.83 per cent to Rs 430.15; NALCO was down by 11.40 per cent to Rs 271.35; SAIL was down by 11.06 per cent to Rs 82.05; Hindustan Zinc was down by 8.59 per cent to Rs 864.80; Gujarat NRE Coke was down by 13.04 per cent to Rs 77 and Essar steel was down by 11.22 per cent to Rs 43.90.

Telecom sector was also badly hit with MTNL falling by 12.78 per cent to Rs 174.30 and VSNL down by 13.10 per cent to Rs 407.80.

Sectorwise BSE IT index suffered least losses down by 5.5.34 per cent; BSE Technology was down by 5.64 per cent and BSE Health Care index was down by 5.96 per cent.

UNI

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