Sensex plunges 750 pts, Nifty tumbles 250 pts

Mumbai, Jan 28: Puncturing the sharp gain-rally last week end, Sensex today fell over 750 points while Nifty shed over 250 points in the opening trade taking a cue with the global market.

The benchmark Sensex of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) resumed the day on negative note at 18,011.99 from its previous close of 18,361.66 and further tumbled into a wide neative gap on strong selling presure triggered by weak global cues. All the sectoral indicies were in red and the market breadth was weak on BSE with 1553 shares declined as compared to 251 that advanced. While, 20 shares remained unchanged. Reality, Metal and Bank stocks were the worst hit in the opening trade.

Banking shares were weak ahead of Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) quarterly monetary policy review scheduled on Tuesday, January 29 2008.

HDFC Bank slipped 7.61 per cent to Rs 1479.50. It was the top loser from Sensex pack in the early trade. Among others, State Bank of India was down 6.82 per cent to Rs 2241 and ICICI Bank came down 2.65 per cent to Rs 1225.90.

As per reports, a sharp cut in US interest rates last week has increased the possibility of repo rate cut by 25 basis points by the apex bank.

Frontliner stocks, Reliance Industries lost 4.27 per cent, Mahindra&Mahindra was down 6.87 per cent, Bharti Airtel declined 6.64 per cent and Bajaj Auto shed 6.19 per cent were the other losers from Sensex pack.

As per provisional data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 208.48 crore on Friday. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers of shares worth Rs 248.35 crore.

UNI