Sensex plunges by 248.45 pts ahead of inflation

Mumbai, Aug 28: The Sensex crashed for the second consecutive day today by 248.45 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange to end in the red at 14,048 following heavy offloading by local operators on Inflation concerns.

Marketmen saw sharp correction in last half an hour of trade and ended with huge gap, led by sell off in oil, realty, capital goods, banking, metal, technology and select power stocks. Inflation concerns kept markets nervous in second half of session. Intense selling in index heavyweight Reliance Industries and in bank stocks triggered a sell-off in late trade. The BSE 30-share barometer index hit a low slightly above the psychological 14,000 level before cutting some of the steep losses.

Volatility was high in second half of the trading session ahead of expiry of August 2008 derivative contracts. Rising crude oil prices weighed on the sentiment.

Frontline indices had opened flat and traded marginally weak with choppiness on the back of F &O expiry but inflation concerns started dragging markets lower in second half of session. Even in last half an hour of trade, Sensex and Nifty moved just near to their pshychological levels of 14000 and 4200, respectively but indices did not break those levels.

The Nifty index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed negative at 4214.00 points, down 78.10 points or 1.82 per cent after hitting an intraday low of 4201.85. Sensex ended with a loss of 248.45 points or 1.74 pc at 14,048.34. It has touched a low of 14,002.43. Both the indices plummeted by 433.88 points for Sensex and for Nifty by 123.50 points in the last two days.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 4035 crore as compared to Rs 2759 crore during the session. Turnover traded in markets has improved a lot, especially due to F &O expiry. It stood at Rs 83,236.95 crore. This includes Rs 66,164.24 crore from F &O segment, Rs 4,041.46 crore from BSE Cash and balance Rs 13,031.25 crore from NSE Cash segment.

In BSE, top indices also drifted lower on profit booking at higher level. BSE CG index plummeted by 262.37 points and ended low at 11,492.50 points, followed by OILS &GAS index by 247.81 to 9407.79 points, METAL index by 224.79 to 11,925.45 points, PSU index by 125.11 to 6508.16, BANKEX index by 119.04 to 6596.41, REALTY index by 83.97 to 4753.07 points, SML CAP by 77.61 to 6782.30 points, MID CAP index by 77.58 to 5608.85 points, IT index by 33.89 to 2980.28 points, POWER index by 33.90 to 2516.41 points and FMCG index by 12.18 to 2169.98 points.

Similarly, BSE leading stocks suffered a setback as L&T declined by Rs 75.95 and finished low at Rs 2501.50, Reliance slipped by Rs 74.15 to Rs 2073.70, BHEL dropped by Rs 52.50 to Rs 12628.90, HDFC eased by Rs 45.25 to Rs 2,247.80, REL INFRA came down by Rs 30.45 to Rs 935.30, SBI dropped by Rs 21.45 to Rs 1,309.45, HDFC Bank was down by Rs 18.05 to Rs 1,215.35, Hindalco eased by Rs 17.45 to Rs 121.05, ICICI Bank eased by RS 14.95 to Rs 633.90, REL COM Ltd dropped by Rs 11.85 to Rs 385.45, Wipro came down by Rs 11.35 to Rs 414.00 and Tata Steel eased modestly by Rs 9.60 to Rs 571.00.

However, a few top heavyweight stocks rallied on scattered bull support by local operators. Tata Power rose by Rs 4.50 to close firm at Rs 1016.15, Maruti Suzuki hardened by Rs 3.80 to Rs 630.20, Ranbaxy Lab was up by Rs 2.60 to Rs 514.00 and Satyam Comp moved up by Rs 2.10 to Rs 406.45.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, October 2008 crude rose USD 1.88 at USD 118.15 per barrel, yesterday on fears that Tropical Storm Gustav could interrupt oil and natural gas output in the Gulf of Mexico.

European markets, which opened after Indian markets, were mixed.

Key benchmark indices in UK and France were up by between 0.08 pc and 0.07 pc, Germany's DAX fell 0.27 pc. Asian markets were trading mixed. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan were down by between 0.52 pc and 2.29 pc. However indices in China and Japan rose 0.34 pc and 0.12 pc respectively, brokers added.

UNI