Sensex down 274 pts, closes at 15,422.31

umbai, Jun 18: After the bullish phase in last two days, the key benchmark Sensex of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today plunged by 274.59 points to end in the red at 15,422.31 on profit booking at higher levels by Foreign Institutional Investors and some mutual fund operators.

Bears have taken complete control over the market, which closed the day on a weaker note. Banks and realty stocks had led rally in yesterday's trade but today both sectors were main draggers. Selling pressure in European markets also weighed on the market sentiment. The markets opened with marginal gains and remained volatile for first half of session but after noon, both indices started drifting lower and broke the psychological levels.

Markets slid in the 2nd half of day on reports that Royal Bank of Scotland analysts are telling clients to prepare for a crash in world stock&credit markets during the next 3 months.

The Sensex touched an intraday low of 15,390.22 and high of 15,789.62, before closing the day at 15,422.31, down 274.59 points or 1.75 per cent.

The Nifty index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) also touched below 4600 mark and was down 70.60 points or 1.52 pc, to close negative at 4582.40 against 4653 on the previous day. The index recorded the day's high of 4679.75 and a low at 4569.90 points.

Market breadth was negative with about 1305 shares advancing while 1458 shares declined. Nearly 358 shares remained unchanged on the BSE.

Total turnover traded by the markets stood at Rs 65,955.85 crore.

This includes Rs 12,350.88 crore from NSE Cash segment, Rs 47,440.71 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 6,164.26 crore from BSE Cash segment, as against Rs 5,337.45 crore on the previous day.

The BSE indices also suffered a major setback as METAL index crashed steeply by 265.38 points to close negative at 15,251.48 points, followed by BANKEX index by 260.73 to 7306.44 points, REALTY index by 213.41 to 5885.78, OILS&GAS index by 167.44 to 10,066.35 points, IT index by 106.26 to 4333.94, TECH index by 65.82 to 3376.01 points, PSU index by 56.75 to 6682.08 points, MID CAP index by 40.39 to 6359.79 points and POWER index by 28.40 to 2675 points.

UNI