Sensex ends below 15,000 mark

Mumbai, Aug 1: The Sensex today crashed by a whopping 615.22 points to settle in the red below the psycological barrier of 15,000, at 14,935.77 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), on intense selling pressure, triggered by bleeding US, Asian and European indices and spiralling global oil prices.

''A global meltdown led to a blood-bath on local bourses. After opening weak influenced by bearish US markets, the market kept on declining further on intense selling pressure. Weak Asian and European markets and rising prices of global crude oil dampened the sentiment further. All the sectoral indices on BSE tumbled with shares from the real-estate pack suffering the most,'' market pundits explained.

Similarly, the broader Nifty Index also tanked a staggering 183.00 points on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) to end on negative terrain at 4,345.85 from its previous close of 4,528.85, after opening unchanged and moving between 4,532.90 and 4,339.75 during the day's session.

''Asian markets were a complete sea of red today in the backdrop of Wall Street's decline, while most of the key European indices were also trading with losses,'' market analysts observed.

Japan's Nikkei tumbled 2.19 per cent at 16,870.88. Singapore's Straits Times tanked 3.27 per cent at 3,431.71, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted was down 4.26 per cent at 8,891.88, Hang Seng slipped 3.15 per cent to 22,455.36, South Korea's Seoul Composite slumped 3.97 per cent at 1,856.46 and China's Shanghai Composite was down 3.81 per cent to 4,300.63.

US tocks fell sharply during the last trading session as concerns about the deteriorating US credit market flared up. The Dow slipped 146.32 points, or 1.10 per cent, to 13,211.99, while the broader Standard&Poor's 500 index declined 18.64 points, or 1.26 per cent, to 1,455.27 and the Nasdaq Composite index fell 37.01 points, or 1.43 per cent, to 2,546.27.

Meanwhile, US oil surged more than USD 1 to a record settle above USD 78 a barrel yesterday on expectations that rising refinery demand will further drain inventories in the US, experts pointed out.

BSE data showed that the total turnover amounted to Rs 6,267 crore. The market breadth was weak here with 2,147 shares declining as compared to 533 advancing, while 41 remained unchanged. All the 30-members of the Sensex pack were trading in red.

ACC, Reliance Energy, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Mahindra&Mahindra, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Reliance Industries (RIL), Hindalco Industries, Maruti Udyog, Dr Reddy's, ITC, Hindustan Unilever and Cipla edged lower, while the only prominent entity that gained today was Everonn Systems.

Even as the market corrected sharply, Everonn Systems India settled at Rs 478.45 on the BSE, a 241.75 per cent premium over the offer price of Rs 140. The huge premium on listing was due to a 131.47 times over-subscription of it's initial public offer (IPO).

The issue received total bids for 52.58 crore shares compared to total issue of 40 lakh shares. Its scrip debuted at Rs 245 and touched a high of Rs 560 and a low of Rs 245 during the day. About 71.77 lakh shares were traded on the BSE counter. Everonn Systems India is a fully integrated knowledge management, education and training company, market participants said.

India's second largest cement producer ACC plunged 9.62 per cent to Rs 958 on 3.44 lakh shares. It was the top loser from the Sensex pack. The other major losers from the Sensex pack included Reliance Energy down 7.11 per cent to Rs 737, Ranbaxy Laboratories down 5.33 per cent to Rs 369.10 and Mahindra&Mahindra down 4.83 per cent to Rs 693.90.

Reliance Industries, the country's largest private sector enterprise, lost 5.25 per cent to Rs 1793 on 15.84 lakh shares.

Analysts tracking the energy sector said that RIL is among the 11 winners for oil and gas exploration blocks announced by the Australian government. RIL won the bid for an exploration licence in part of the Bonaparte Basin, off northern Australia. It proposes to spend 29.8 million (Australian dollors) over the next six years, that includes the cost of drilling one well. Australia awards oil and gas exploration permits depending on the amount of work bidders pledge to carry out.

India's largest aluminium maker Hindalco Industries tumbled 6.41 per cent to Rs 159.20 after it said that its net profit in the first quarter remained flat at Rs 602.9 crore due to a sharp fall in alumina prices and a customs duty cut that made imported products cheaper. Hindalco's revenue rose 9 per cent to Rs 4,677.9 crore in first quaterly (Q1) June 2007 over the corresponding period last fiscal. Hindalco is expected to invest Rs 30,000 crore over the next five years in various greenfield and brownfield expansion projects, including the Utkal Alumina project in Orissa.

Meanwhile, Finance minister P Chidambaram yesterday reiterated his intent to trim tax rates, thanks to better compliance by taxpayers and the broadening tax base. He also held out a special dispensation for promising sectors like food processing, electronic hardware, hotels and tourism and leather goods.

UNI