Sensex plunges by 320.30 points

Mumbai, Apr 27: The Sensex today crashed by a whopping 320.30 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange to settle in the red below the psychological mark of 14,000, at 13,908.58, tracking weak global markets.

During intra day, the barometer Sensex had reached an high of 14,219.25 and a low of 13,884.53 points.

Among the broader markets, the Nifty Index also tanked by 94.35 points on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in negative territory at 4,083.50 from its previous close of 4,177.85 points.

The 50-stock Nifty had reached a high of 4,182.00 and a low of 4,074.30 during intra-day trade.

''After a steady rally in the past few days, the BSE Sensex was weak right from the word go today. The market-breadth suffered as small-cap and mid-cap shares came under pressure. There were over two losers for every gainer on BSE. Against 1,703 shares that declined, only 840 had advanced. A total of 82 scrips remained unchanged. The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 3751 crore.

Among the 30-Sensex pack, 28 declined while only 2 of them survived the bloodbath,'' market analysts observed.

The BSE Small Cap Index closed at 6,941.48 down 1.08 per cent while the Midcap Index ended at 5,733.53 down 0.9 per cent. The (Fast moving consumer goods) FMCG Index lost 1.1 per cent at 1,821.21. Tata Tea, HLL, United Spirits, Britannia, Dabur India closed in red.

The BSE Metal Index was down 2.3 per cent to close at 9,726.49.

Tata Steel, Sterlite Ind, Guj NRE Coke, Mah Seamless, Hind Zinc were among the losers. The Health Care Index was down 3.9 per cent at 3,696.05. Cipla, Glenmark, Sun Pharma, Orchid Chemical, Aventis Pharma closed lower.

The BSE Capital Goods Index was down 0.7 per cent at 9,824.09. KEC Infrastructre, Alstom Projects, HEG, Ingersoll Rand, Larsen, Dredging Corp ended lower, while the Auto Index closed at 4,944.55 down 0.7 per cent. Asahi India, Tata Motors, Exide Industrie, Hero Honda were among the losers.

The information technology (IT) Index closed at 4,953.94 down 0.1 per cent. Moser Baer, Mphasis, TCS, Hexaware Tech ended weak, while Bankex was down 2.3 per cent at 7,086.88. SBI, ICICI Bank, UTI Bank, Bank of India, PNB, Union Bank closed lower.

The BSE Oil and Gas Index closed at 7,077.96 down 3 per cent.

Reliance, ONGC, Reliance Natural, HPCL, GAIL also ended in red.

The NSE cash turnover was at Rs 8,212.46 crore and the NSE F&O turnover was at Rs 28,172.44 crore. Since the BSE cash turnover was Rs 3,753.36 crore, the total market wide turnover was at Rs 40,138.26 crore, market pundits pointed out.

UNI