BSE Sensex crashes by 235.37 points

Mumbai, Aug 6: The sensex today crashed by 235.37 points to settle in the red at 14,903.03 at the Bombay Stock Exchange following pressure in index pivotals on the back of bleeding US and Asian bourses.

The barometer index sunk below the 15,000 level right from the opening bell and continued to stubbornly remain there throughout the session. At one point of time, it had even shaved off as much as nearly 423 points,'' market participants said adding that it recovered some ground only at the fag session of the day on value-buying after European indices recovered from their initial weakness.

Among the broader markets, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty also tanked by 62.05 points to settle below the 4,400 level at 4,339.50 from its previous close of 4,401.55. It had earlier opened higher at 4,404.05 that was also its intra-day high.

BSE data showed that the market breadth was weak with 1,486 shares declining as compared to 1,151 that advanced, while 70 remained unchanged. The total turnover here amounted to Rs 4,256 crore. Among the 30-scrip Sensex pack, 23 pivotals were trading in red, while 7 were in green.

TCS, SBI, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Tata Steel, ITC and Mahindra&Mahindra were the day's leaders, while the laggards included ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries (RIL), Hindalco Industries, L&T and Infosys.

Asian markets slumped today following downbeat US economic data, including the influential non-farm payrolls report, adding to fears of the US subprime mortgage crisis snowballing further. Japanese Nikkei fell 0.39 per cent to 16,914.46. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 2.67 per cent at 21,936.73, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted was down 1.28 per cent at 8,841.73, Singapore's Straits Times sank 3.70 per cent at 3,308.90 and South Korea's Seoul Composite was down 1.16 per cent at 1,855.05. However, China's Shanghai Composite was up 1.48 per cent to 4,628.10.

In the US, The Dow Jones shed 281.18 points to 13,182.15 during the last trading session, while the broader Standard&Poor's 500 index dropped 39.14 points to 1,433.06 and the Nasdaq Composite index fell 64.73 points to 2,511.25.

UNI