Sensex looms in red at 267 points low

Mumbai, Nov 12: The market opened sharply lower by 267 points at 18,640.52 in Bombay Stock Exchange on selling pressure driven by global cues.

The benchmark BSE Sensex was looming in red at a loss of about 575 points at 18,333.21 against previous close of 18,907.60 during the mid day trade, as investors across the Asian market were worried over financial crisis in the US, that was still persisting, brokers said.

Similarly, the National Stock Exchange index Nifty opened marginally low at 5,660.60 and followed the bearish trend to move down at 5,477.50 by shedding over 180 points, a dip of about 3 per cent during the mid-day trade. European and Asian markets were on negative zone while US market ended in red.

According to the data sources, 30-share BSE Sensex was down 463.65 points or 2.45pc to 18,443.95. The market breadth was weak. In BSE, 1810 stocks declined, while 684 stocks moved up and 28 remained unchanged.In Sensex, 26 out of 30 stocks were in red.

The BSE Mid-Cap was down 1.82 pc to 7,867.52 and the BSE Small-Cap was down 1.69 pc to 9,591.97. The BSE Metal Index slumped 3.04pc to 16,352.39, the BSE Realty index lost 4.22 pc to 9,683.58, the BSE Bankex was down 2.93pc to 9,913.15. The newly launched BSE Power index was down 3pc to 4,255.50, the BSE Oil&Gas Index was down 3.15pc to 11,268.33 and the BSE IT index was down 2.63pc to 4,141.25.

Among heavyweight stocks, Reliance Industries was trading at a loss of 3.12pc to 2650.80 and Infosys Technologies fell 3.95 pc to Rs 1637. Hindalco Industries was up 3.12pc to Rs 208.50, ITC was up 2.75pc to Rs 173.5 and Hindustan Unilever moved up 1.68pc to Rs 196.50.

ONGC was trading at the loss of 5.01pc to Rs 1176.70, Bharat Heavy Electricals was down 4.96pc to Rs 2637, Tata Steel was down 4.02pc to Rs 800.55.

Major banking and telecom stocks were also trading in red. Reliance Communication dropped 3.90 pc to Rs 681.85, HDFC Bank was down 3.77 pc to Rs 1480.25 and ICICI Bank fell 3.50pc to Rs 1102.05.

UNI