Sensex crashes by 349 pts, closes low at 13,382 pts

Mumbai, Dec 19: After last four day's bullish phase, the Sensex today plunged by 349.08 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange and closed at a low of 13,382.01 on sustained heavy sellling pressure from Foreign Institutional Invstors (FII's) and domestic investors.

The BSE Sensex settled with sharp losses after rallying for the past four consecutive sessions, on intense selling pressure.

It had plunged around 500 points in mid afternoon trade on intense selling pressure to touch an intra-day low of 13237.39, but recovered as value buying emerged at lower levels.

The 30-shares BSE Sensex ended with sharp fall of 349.08-point (2.54 per cent) at 13,382.01. Its high for the day was at 13748.62.

It oscillated sharply by 511.23 points during the day, with high volatility.

The BSE CG and METAL indices crashed steeply by 301.60 points and 200.85 points respectively and closed at 8893.94 points for CG index and for METAL index at 8605.41 points, followed by IT index by 157.22 and touched 5046.85 points. BANKEX index was down by 145.74 points and closed at 6836.65 points, PSU index slid by 137.51 points and was quoted at 5880.07 points, OIL&GAS index by 132.08 and touched 6019.16 points, TECK index was down by 98.97 points and closed at 3488.72 points,AUTO index by 85.63 points and touched 5231.16 points, SML CAP index by 71.82 points and touched 6634.80 points and MID CAP index by 68.45 points and closed at 5595.78 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE lost 96.75 points (2.46 per cent) to 3832. Before it resumed flat at 3928.85 points. Later it recorded a high and a low at 3931.90 and 3783.45 points during the intra day.

Thai stocks plunged the most in 16 years, triggering declines across Asia's emerging markets, after the central bank said international investors will have to pay a 10 per cent penalty on funds withdrawn out of the country within a year.

The new rules, announced yesterday by central bank Governor Tarisa Watanagase, are aimed at stemming a 16 per cent gain in the Baht this year. The Thai currency had its biggest two-day decline since April 2005. Stocks from Malaysia and Indonesia also declined after the Thai central bank's currency controls heightened concern about emerging markets.

Back home, the data showing substantial FII sales on yesterday also dampened the sentiment today.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 4114 crore. Market breadth was negative on BSE, with 1.8 losers for every gainer, as selling pressure emerged for small-cap and mid-cap stocks. On BSE, 1641 shares declined as compared to 919 that advanced. 69 remained unchanged.

All the Asian markets were trading with losses except China's Shanghai Composite, which was up 1.36 perm cent.

Japanese stocks declined for the first time in seven days, led by brokerages such as Daiwa Securities Group Inc., after the nation's securities watchdog recommended that Nikko Cordial Corp. be fined because of false earnings statements.

The Japanese Nikkei 225 index was down 1.09 per cent while the Hang Seng index lost 1.19 per cent. The Bank of Japan today kept interest rates unchanged at 0.25 per cent.

US stocks fell on Monday as investors locked in profits after tumbling oil prices hurt energy shares such as Exxon Mobil Corp., overshadowing gains earlier in the session on news of at least USD 82 billion in corporate takeovers.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 4.25 points, or 0.03 percent, to end at 12,441.27. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 21.63 points, or 0.88 percent, to close at 2,435.57.

Oil prices were steady on Tuesday as the market gauged the impact of its biggest slide in a month the day before. On Monday, prices dropped 1.9 per cent as forecasts about warmer-than-normal U.S weather countered last week's gains. It was the biggest dollar and percentage drop for the front-month contract since November 16.

Tuesday, light sweet crude for January delivery dropped a penny to US Dollar 62.20 a barrel in midday Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, brokers said.

Among the 30-member Sensex pack, 29 declined while Hero Honda (up 0.89 per cent to Rs 757) was the lone gainer. PSU engineering major Bhel was the top loser, down by 5.39 per cent to Rs 2262.35 on 6.40 lakh shares. It had lost 4.21 per cent on Monday. Market men attribute this fall to likely loss of equipment orders for the upcoming ultra mega power projects the bids for which were opened on Monday. According a report by domestic brokerage, Bhel's cost competitiveness for supercritical equipment comes under question given the large disparity in bid prices between the lowest bidder, Lanco (at Rs 1.19 per unit) and NTPC (at Rs 2.1/unit).

Reports suggest that Lanco had tied up with Chinese equipment supplier Dongfang, while NTPC had tied up with Bhel for ultra mega power project.

NTPC slumped by 5.05 per cent to Rs 133.60 on high volumes of 26.17 lakh shares. The stock moved in a range of Rs 132.70 to 142.

Reliance Communications (down 4.80 per cent to Rs 445.45), L&T (down 4.21 per cent to Rs 1410) and ACC (down 3.82 per cent to Rs 1013) were the other losers.

Index heavyweight Reliance industries (RIL) was down by 3.20 per cent to Rs 1248 on 17.42 lakh shares notwithstanding reports that Reliance Industries and its partner Niko Resources have discovered huge oil in the hydrocarbon rich Krishna-Godavari basin. It had slipped to a low of Rs 1231.

Tata Steel lost 3.23 per cent to Rs 452.30 on 13.02 lakh shares.

It had advanced to a high of Rs 475 following reports the UK Takeover Panel is putting the Corus deal on the fast track by planning to auction Anglo-Dutch steel company to the two rival suitors Tata Steel and Brazil's CSN.

Reliance Industries (RIL) was the most active counter on BSE with turnover of Rs 219.19 crore followed by Bhel (Rs 147.55 crore) and Tech Mahindra (Rs 128.12 crore).

Madhucon Projects was down by 6.81 per cent to Rs 294 on high volumes of 12.07 lakh shares. The counter saw three block deals which were (3.54 lakh shares at Rs 320 per share), (4.42 lakh shares at Rs 305 per share) and (2.98 lakh shares at Rs 303 per share).

As per provisional data, FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 369 crore on Monday when Sensex had risen 116 points in volatile trade. Their net outflow was Rs 46 crore last Friday, the day when Sensex had risen 127 points.

FIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 307 crore in index-based futures on Monday. They were net sellers to the tune of Rs 26 crore in individual stock futures on that day, sub-brokers said.

UNI