BSE Sensex crashes by nearly 500 points

Mumbai, July 27: The Sensex has shaved-off a shocking 496.33 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to plunge to 15,279.98 during intra-day from it's previous close of 15,776.31, after opening remarkably weaker at 15,487.76, tracking bleeding global and Asian bourses.

Similarly, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty also tanked by 60.40 points to reach a low of 4,459.40 from it's previous close of 4,619.80, after opening weaker at 4,618.65.

''Right now, the market seems to be heading for it's worst day in terms of daily losses. It has crashed on panic selling. What started as an initial plunge on global meltdown, bulged further. Asian markets have also extended their fall. It was absolute bloodbath on the street with all the sectoral indices on the premier BSE posting sharp losses. Realty stocks were hammered brutally. Volatility also creeped in the bourses,'' market participants lamented.

BSE data showed that the market breadth was weak as just 401 shares advanced while 2,031 declined and 62 remained unchanged. The total turnover so far amounted to Rs 3,414 crore. Among the Sensex pack, 28 slumped while 2 of them stood tall in the bloodbath.

Shares from real estate pack were hammered brutally, with the BSE Realty index declining 6.60 per cent to 7,712.12, and was the top loser among the sectoral indices on BSE, market analysts pointed out and added that DLF slumped by 6.80 per cent to Rs 591, Unitech plunged 5.10 per cent to Rs 564, Mahindra Gesco Developers was down 3.70 per cent to Rs 572.95 and Sobha Developers crashed 3.22 per cent to Rs 883.

The only two leaders so far are ITC and Ranbaxy Laboratories, while the prominent laggards were Reliance Communications, Bharti Airtel, Bhel, Reliance Energy, HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries (RIL) Wholesale prices-based inflation rate increased to 4.41 per cent for the week ended 14 July from 4.27 per cent in the previous week mainly because of higher prices of fruits and vegetables. The inflation numbers are still within the 5 per cent annual target of the Reserve Bank, which is due to review the monetary policy on July 31, this year. The annual rate of inflation was 4.62 per cent in the corresponding week last year.

All the Asian indices were trading with losses, except KLSE Composite. Japanese stocks led Asian markets lower in a broad-based retreat today, as export stocks such as Canon Inc and Honda Motor Corp were hit hard on concerns over the outlook for the US economy.

Nikkei tumbled 2.36 per cent at 17,283.81.

Hang Seng slipped 1.94 per cent at 22,761.12, Taiwan Weighted down 4.22 per cent at 9,162.28), Singapore's Straits Times was down 3.30 per cent at 3,461.62 and South Korea's Seoul Composite tanked 4.09 per cent at 1,883.22. China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.14 per cent to 4,340.47.

Wall Street suffered one of its worst losses in this year so far yesterday as investors succumbed to months of worry about the mortgage and corporate lending markets. The Dow Jones plunged 311.50 points, or 2.26 per cent, to 13,473.57. Broader market indicators also slid. The Nasdaq Composite index declined 48.83 points, or 1.84 per cent, to 2,599.34, while the Standard&Poor's 500 slipped 35.43 points, or 2.33 per cent, to 1,482.66.

Oil rose today holding firm above USD 75 a barrel as traders bet that fears of tight summer supplies would offset a fresh wave of risk aversion that struck US equities and dragged oil down a day ago. London Brent crude gained 41 cents to USD 75.59 a barrel. US crude rose 43 cents to USD 75.38.

UNI