Today's slide of 438.41 points in the BSE Sensex took the three-day losses close to 1,500 points, cumulatively eroding investors' wealth by over 100 billion dollars (Rs 4,06,000 crore).
The selling pressure continued despite the arrest of outflow by Foreign Institutional Investors. FIIs turned net buyers on Thursday on the bourses with purchase of shares worth Rs 125 crore (Rs 1.25 billion), from being net seller of about Rs 1,800 crore (Rs 18 bilion) a day before.
The trend on FII front for the day's trading was not available till late evening, but the pressure, created by SEBI's proposals, continued unrelented, possibly created by unusually high degree of speculation fueled by rumours.
Market leader RIL, despite announcing impressive second quarter results yesterday, was among the top losers, which collectively pulled down the Sensex to 17,559.98 points.
The S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed sharply lower by 135.70 points or 2.54 per cent to 5,215.30 from previous close of 5,351.00.
Funnily enough, Anil Ambani group had a rare distinction of leading both the pack of losers and gainers on a day when SEBI said that it has started getting feedback from the FIIs on its proposals relating to Offshore Derivative Instruments aimed at checking "anonymous" funds.
While Reliance Communications gained 2.2 per cent on news of getting government nod to offer GSM along with its ongoing CDMA services, Reliance Energy, whose subsidiary Reliance Power is hitting the market with an IPO, shed over 16 per cent and was the biggest loser among Sensex stocks.
The other gainers of the day included Bajaj Auto, which today reported a good set of quarterly results, Tata Steel and ONGC, while the losers included Birla's Hindalco, Sunil Mittal's Bharti Airtel, auto leader Maruti and L&T.
