Sensex opens below 13,000 mark, crashes by over 250 pts

Mumbai, Apr 2 (UNI) The BSE Sensex today opened below 13,000 mark, qouting negative at 12,811,93 points with a major loss of around 261 points from it last close of 13,072.10 points on sustained heavy panic selling pressure by local opeators due to hike in the short term repo rate and the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by the RBI, brokers said.

The BSE Sensex opened in the red, well below the 13,000 mark in opening trade, following a surprise hike in the short-term repo rate and the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) after trading hours on Friday (30 March). The RBI move comes at a time, when there's uncertainty already prevailing about the market's direction.

Later, the Sensex was down 352.50 points, at 12,718.28. It had also struck a high of 12,811.93, and a low of 12,623.60.

Meanwhile, the S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE also resumed a low at 3,820.00 points. Later it registered a further low at 3,683.50 points in intra day trades.

The current index is touched again a low at 3,687.90 with a big loss around by 134 points from it last close of 3,821.55 points.

Maruti Udyog (MUL) dropped by 5.77 per cent to Rs 772.40, State Bank of India (SBI) fell by 5.62 per cent to Rs 937.10, Tata Motors eased by 5.44 per cent to Rs 688.15, and Bajaj Auto was down by 4.92 per cent to Rs 2306.

Infosys (down by 1.32 per cent), Tata Steel (down by 1.51 per cent), TCS (down by 1.53 per cent) and Dr Reddy's Labs (down by 1.0.69 per cent) were the other losers.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) also slipped by 1.43 per cent to Rs 1,348, on a volume of 72,044 shares.

All major losers in the 'A' group were banking stocks. The heaviest loser, Oriental Bank (down by 7.94 per cent to Rs 172.65) was followed by Union Bank of India (less 7.60 per cent to Rs 96), Bank of India (slid by 7.03 per cent to Rs 156), UTI Bank (lost by 6.74 per cent to Rs 457.10), and Punjab National Bank (down by 6.71 per cent to Rs 440) in that order.

The banking sector index, the BSE Bankex, had lost 342.32 points, to 6,199.69.

ICICI Bank dropped by 5.18 per cent to Rs 808.80. The bank, soon after the RBI announcement, raised its benchmark-lending rate by 100 basis points to 15.75 per cent. A hike in lending rate by banks will raise interest rates on working loans of corporates. Over the last year, bank-lending rates have risen by about 300 basis points.

Moser Baer India surged by 3.05 per cent to Rs 307.50, after the firm on Saturday said its unit had bought a 40 per cent stake in Slovenia-based Solarvalue Proizvodnja d.d. from Solarvalue AG.

Financial details were not disclosed.

Asian stocks edged higher today. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, China and Taiwan were up between 0.5 - 1.3 per cent. Only Japan was down by 0.45 per cent, brokers added.

UNI