The Sensex witnessed vertical fall in the late trades to plunge to a low of 15,443, down 527 points from the day's high, owing to aggressive selling in auto, realty, metal and FMCG stocks.
The BSE benchmark index on Thursday opened 22 points lower at 15,881. The index languished in the negative terrain for the first half of the day. Afterwards the Sensex managed to bounce into positive and touch a high of 15,970. However, heavy selling after 1400 hrs saw the index slide to lower levels.
The Sensex finally settled at 15,514, down 389 points. The NSE Nifty ended at 4,586, down 109 points.
The Auto index led the decline, followed by Realty, Metal and FMCG indices. The BSE Auto index shed 4.4% at 5,677. The Realty, Metal and FMCG indices dropped 3-3.7% each.
The NSE Nifty closed at 4,585, down 108 points. The index slipped to a low of 4,559 towards the end of the trading session, down 159 points from the day's high of 4718.
The market breadth was negative -- out of 2,765 stocks, 1,607 declined, while 1,084 advanced on Thursday.
INDEX SHAKERS...
Tata Motors plunged 7% to Rs 418. Hindalco tumbled 6.5% to Rs 103.
Jaiprakash Associates, Maruti Suzuki and Hero Honda declined 5.5% each to Rs 230, Rs 1,364 and Rs 1,519, respectively.
Sterlite and ACC slipped 4.5% each to Rs 648 and Rs 885, respectively.
Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC and Tata Steel shed 4% each to Rs 881, Rs 233 and Rs 455, respectively.
Reliance declined 1.5% to Rs 2,046.
Hindustan Unilever, Grasim, ONGC, Reliance Communication, DLF, SBI and TCS were the other losers.
Among the NSE stocks, HCL Technologies declined 4% to Rs 244.
...AND THE MOVERS
Sun Pharma gained 1.5% to Rs 1,200.
Among the Nifty stocks, BPCL and Cairn advanced over 1% each.
Image: The Bombay Stock Exchange. | Photograph: Rediff Archives
