Nifty ends below 3k, Sensex below 10k

Mumbai, Oct 23: The 50 share Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) plunged to a two-year low, below 3k at 2943.15 points with a big loss of 122 points on panic selling pressure in select stocks like Metal, Oils, Gas and Auto even as Asian stocks fell to a four-year low on Thursday, Oct 23.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark index also fell below the 10k mark, nosediving by 398.20 points to 9771.70. It was another dismal session for the market. The Finance Minister's statement on short positions could not help out markets. Negative global cues and severe fall in the metal stocks led to the crash. However, the markets recoverd sharply to turn in green post FM announcement of SEBI asking FIIs to reverse short positions on borrowed shares but recovery did not last too long&fizzled out as viciously as it had gained, a leading broker said.

European markets fell as bearish updates from engineering group ABB and auto group Daimler added to worries about the global economy that sent banks and commodity shares sharply lower. Key benchmark indices in France, UK and Germany fell between 2 per cent to 3.88 per cent. Asian markets, which had tumbled earlier in the day on fears of a severe global downturn, cut losses on news the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Chairman Sheila Bair is expected to suggest in a Senate Banking Committee today that the government give banks incentives to turn troubled loans into more affordable mortgages.

Easier overseas borrowing norms announced by the Reserve Bank of India after trading hours yesterday failed to stem a steep slide on the domestic bourses at the opening bell caused by setback in Asian stocks.

Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum, Bharti Airtel, SAIL, SBI, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Infosys, Tata Motors and Hindalco were big contributors to this fall.

Both benchmark indices have closed below their psychological levels. The Sensex plunged 398.20 points or 3.92 pc, to settle at 9,771.70. It touched an intraday low of 9,681.28 and high of 10,260.55.

The NSE Nifty Fifty closed at 2943.15, down 122 points or 3.98 pc from previous close. It has hit a high and low of 3085.10 and 2917.15 points respectively.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 3747 crore today as compared to a turnover of Rs 3,095.17 crore on previous day. The market breadth was weak. On BSE, 641 shares advanced as compared to 1,885 that declined. 68 shares remained unchanged.

The weak Rupee also led to IT stocks recovering from initial falls, caused by overnight slide in American depository receipts (ADRs) and on lower-than-expected results of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) by sales. TCS led the rebound, gaining 0.2 per cent to Rs 547.45, recovering from the day's low of Rs 497. The company's net profit fell 2.57 pc to Rs 1173.04 on a 9.36 pc rise in sales to Rs 5699.96 in second quarter ended September 2008 over first quarter ended June 2008.

On the BSE, key indices for the second day drifted lower as METAL index declined by 622.53 per cent to end negative at 4996.92 points followed by OIL&GAS index by 339.30 pc to 6058.28 points, AUTO index by 215.37 pc to 2769.79 points, BANKEX index by 183.44 pc to 5321.14 points, SML CAP by 145.99 pc to 3965.70, HC index by 134.88 pc to 3064.44 points, REALTY index by 128.12 pc to 2305.58 points, PSU index by 116.27 to 4930.06 points and MID CAP by 111.67 to 3378.72 points.

The top heavyweight shares were losers with Tata Steel losing ground by 14.85 per cent to end lower at Rs 208.45, Tata Motors by 14.57 to Rs 195, Hindalco by 13.10 to Rs 52.75, Ranbaxy Lab by 10.94 pc to Rs 229.95, Mahindra&Mahindra by 9.77 pc to Rs 342.30, Maruti Suzuki by 8.82 pc to Rs 592, ICICI Bank by 7.79 pc to Rs 365.55, Bharti Airtel by 7.76 to Rs 615.60, HDFC by 7.71 pc to Rs 1758.10, Reliance by 7.62 pc to Rs 1215.25, Sterlite Ind by 7.47 pc to Rs 245.30, Jaiprakash Asso by 6.41 pc to 67.85, REL INFRA by 5.34 pc to 448.15, SBI by 4.84 pc to Rs 324.30 and Tata Power ended lower by 3.31 pc to Rs 728.25.

However, a few select heavyweight shares looked up modestly on scattered bull support by local operators. Grasim Ind rose by 4.74 per cent to close firm at Rs 1215, BHEL was up by 2.74 to Rs 1170.35, L&T rose by 2.43 pc to Rs 834.95, HDFC Bank by 2.23 pc to Rs 1072 and ONGC by 1.94 pc to Rs 776.05.

UNI