Sensex plunges 570.51 points down

Mumbai, Jul 3: The benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange wiped off most of the previous day's gains and plunged 570.51 points down to close at 13,094.11 on weak global cues due to sharp surge in oil prices. The Sensex started the session with a negative gap of 134 points at 13,530.68 from the previous close of 13,664.62 and futher extended the losses to touch a day's low of 12,934.92, dipping by about 730 points on sustained selling pressure across the board.

The broader based Nifty index of National Stock Exchange shed 167.60 points to close at 3925.75.

Oil prices at fresh record high above USD 144 per barrel and overnight fall in US stocks weighed the Asian market sentiments that also reflected on the Indian stock market today, brokers said.

The Sensex, however, managed to end just above 13,000 mark while Nifty failed to hold above 4,000 mark, brokers added.

Tata Steel lost more than 11 per cent. All the sectoral indices on BSE ended in red. Realty lost 9.2 per cent, Metal melted down 8.5 per cent, Power index dropped 4.67 per cent, bankex tumbled 4,59 per cent, proplling the downward pressure. The market breadth turned negative today and a tunover of Rs 5,638 crore was quoted on BSE as compared to Rs 6,421.03 crore in the previous session.

European markets were marginally down, while Asian market's key indices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea were down between 0.16pc to 2.13 pc. Backhome, Sensex had erased over 8,112 points or 38.25 pc from a record high of 21,206.77 hit on January 10.

Nifty July 2008 futures was at 3870, at a discount of 55.75 points as compared to spot closing of 3925.75. NSE's futures &options (F&O) segment turnover was Rs 51,604.28 crore, which was lower than Rs 57,532.76 crore on July 2.

The BSE Mid-Cap index fell 2.82pc to 5,161.76 and Small-Cap declined 2.42pc to 6,349.17 and outperformed the Sensex.

Reliance Industries (RIL) fell 3.36pc to Rs 2,071.10, Reliance Infrastructure fell 8.72 pc at Rs 721.55, Infosys declined 4pc to Rs 1,747.80 and Reliance Communications fell 6.91pc to Rs 389.50.

Realty stocks were hit badly again. Indiabulls Real Estate was down 8.65pc to Rs 261.45, Unitech by 9.99pc to Rs 154 and DLF tumbled 9.93pc to Rs 381.85. Realty index had risen more than 12pc in yesterday's rebound on the bourses.

Banking stocks fell ahead of inflation data. ICICI Bank dropped 7.89pc to Rs 573.85 and HDFC Bank was down 3.6pc to Rs 983.80, However, India's largest lender State Bank of India gained marginally at Rs 1086.

UNI