Sensex nose dives by 502 pts

Mumbai, Jul 25: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex crashed for the second consecutive day today by 502.07 points and ended red bound at 14,274.94 points from it last finish of 14,777.01 on sustained heavy offloading by Foreign Institutional Investors and weak global cues.

The Sensex and National Stock Exchange Nifty indices also plummeted steeply by 667.34 points and 164.95 points respectively, in the last two days.

The heavy weight stocks extended early losses, to end sharply lower, after reports filtered of seven blasts in Bangalore this afternoon.

The market traded weak throughout the trading session, amid negative cues from the global markets. Additionally, traders booked profits after a 20 per cent rise in market. Index pivotals ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries plunged.

Oil rose above USD 126 a barrel, extending a rebound a day earlier that helped stem a nearly two-week dive, as buyers crept back into the market before the weekend, superseding lingering demand worries. Crude oil for September delivery was at USD 125.96 a barrel, up by 47 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) this noon.

The European markets opened after Indian market were in red. Key benchmark indices in UK, France and Germany were down by 0.90 per cent to 1.48 per cent. Asian markets, which opened before Indian markets, dropped. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, China and Singapore were down by between 1.50 per cent to 1.97 per cent, which led to downward trend at Indian bourses, brokers pointed out.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell by 502.07 points or 3.40 per cent and closed negative at 14,274.94 points. The index lost 566.38 points at the day's low of 14,210.63, hit in late trade. Sensex lost 292.62 points at the day's high of 14,484.39, hit in early trade.

The broader based S &P CNX Nifty of national Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed below of 4400 barrier and ended negative at 4,311.85 points with a lose of 121.70 points or 2.74 per cent from it last close of 4,433.55 points.

Total turnover stood at Rs 73,683.24 crore. This includes Rs 14,676.97 crore from NSE Cash segment, Rs 53,163.45 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 5,842.82 crore from BSE Cash segment.

The BSE major indices suffered a setback as BSE GAS &OIL index was top among index crashed by 508.98 points, or 5.08 per cent and closed low at 9,504.42 points, followed by BANKEX index by 411.62 points or 5.75 per cent to 6,751.86 points, CG index by 380.89 points or 3.14 per cent at 11,738.27 points, METAL index by 204.15 or 1.61 per cent to 12,492.19 points, REALTY index by 201.09 points or 3.84 per cent to 5,029.06 points, POWER index by 67.26 points or 2.53 per cent to 2,587.19 points, PSU index by 53.64 points or 0.80 per cent to 6,674.57 points and IT index by 18.80 points or 0.52 per cent to 3611.24 points.

UNI