Leading merchant banker Lehman Brothers Inc's fall and its move to file for bankruptcy triggered a wave of panic across Asian markets. And the disastrous start back home and the subsequent fall to lower levels sent the benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty crashing down with a thud and brought back dreaded memories of some Black Mondays today.
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The Sensex opened with a negative gap of nearly 335 points at 13,666.28 - it remained its high for the session - and plunged to a low of 13,150.81 in mid-morning trade due to heavy selling in stocks cutting across sectors. Realty, IT, bank, metal and capital goods stocks were among the worst hit this morning.
The Sensex then staged a recovery of sorts and stayed in a tight range for around a couple of hours. Finally, during the fag end of the session, a few front line stocks, particularly a few from banking and auto sectors, rallied sharply and regained some lost ground. Oil and FMCG stocks too rebounded from their lower levels.
A sharp fall in crude oil prices and short-covering in some heavyweight stocks enabled the market to wipe off a good portion of its losses. The decision of the Chinese central bank to cut reserve ratio for smaller banks by 100 basis points had a positive impact as well. Still, the Sensex ended the session with a huge loss of 469.54 points or 3.35% at 13,531.27 today. The Nifty, which had plunged to a low of 3955.40 in morning trade, settled at 4072.90 with a loss of 155.65 points or 3.68%.
There were just three gainers, Maruti Suzuki (2.8%), HDFC (1.2%) and ACC (0.65%), from the Sensex today. Among Nifty stocks, besides the three Sensex gainers, BPCL (0.9%) was the one to make it to the positive territory today.
Reliance Infrastructure (down 9.7%), Satyam Computer Services (down 9.45%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (down 7.6%), DLF (down 7.5%), Jaiprakash Associates (down 6.5%), ONGC (down 6%), Tata Consultancy Services (down 5.7%), Reliance Communications (down 5.65%), Tata Motors (down 5.15%) and Hindalco (down 5.1%) declined sharply.
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Sterlite Industries, Tata Steel, Infosys Technologies, Wipro, BHEL, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank lost 3% - 4.5%. Grasim Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Industries, NTPC, Hindustan Unilever and State Bank of India also ended with sharp losses.
Unitech, Tata Communications, Cairn India, Siemens, Reliance Power, Power Grid Corporation, HCL Technologies, Idea Cellular, Reliance Petroleum, Punjab National Bank, ABB, Suzlon Energy, Zee Entertainment and SAIL were among the major losers in the Nifty index.
IB Securities, HDIL, IFCI, Chambal Fertilizers, Reliance Capital, ND TV, Adlabs Films, IDFC, Akruti City, Praj Industries, NMDC, Essar Oil, Welspun Gujarat, Patni Computer Services, Rolta India, Oracle, Future Capital Holdings and India Bulls Financial Services were some of the prominent losers in BSE 'A' Group.
Midcap stocks Anant Raj Industries, Mercator Lines, Ansal Infrastructure, Orbit Corporation, Mic Electronics, Development Credit Bank, Gammon Infrastructure, Penland, Rajesh Exports, Madras Aluminium, Coromandel Fertilizers, Redington India and Matrix Laboratories ended with sharp losses today.
The market breadth was very weak. Out of 2662 stocks traded on BSE, 2263 stocks ended with losses. 359 stocks posted gains and 40 stocks ended flat.
