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Bears' day out, Sensex plunges 268 points

Last updated on: April 25, 2006 16:58 IST

 The Sensex tanked heavily on Tuesday triggered by a variety of factors - profit-taking after the sharp rally, a hike in derivatives margin by the National Stock Exchange and the nearing of derivatives expiry of the April series.

The Sensex opened with a 28-point gap at 11,943. The index touched a high of 11,953 before slipping into the negative zone. Unabated selling in auto, metal and power stocks saw the index languish in negative zone through the day.

As selling intensified in post-noon deals, the index tumbled to a low of 11,622 - down 331 points from the day's high. The index finally closed with a huge loss of 2.2% (268 points) at 11,647.

The Nifty lost 83 points to close at 3,466.

The BSE Metal index crashed 3% to 10,075. While the Auto and Healthcare indices were down 2.6% each at 5340 and 3823, respectively, the FMCG index dropped 2.4% to 2229. The IT and PSU indices were down almost 2% each at 4011 and 6023, respectively.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,574 stocks traded, 1,420 declined, 1,087 advanced and the rest were unchanged today.

Index Movers & Shakers

Cipla slumped 4.7% to Rs 248. Ranbaxy dropped 3.2% to Rs 481, and Dr.Reddy's was down 2% at Rs 1,434.

Tata Steel shed 4.6% to Rs 623. Hindalco dropped 2.8% to Rs 206.

Reliance Energy tumbled over 4% to Rs 608. NTPC and Tata Power slipped 4% each to Rs 129 and Rs 549, respectively.

Tata Motors dropped over 4% to Rs 917. Maruti slipped 3.5% to Rs 868. Bajaj Auto declined 3.2% to Rs 2,836, and Hero Honda was down 2.7% at Rs 825.

Grasim shed 4% to Rs 2,283. ACC declined 3.5% to Rs 923. Gujarat Ambuja was down 2% at Rs 117.

ITC and HLL slipped nearly 3% each to Rs 197 and Rs 206, respectively.

Reliance was down 2.5% at Rs 953. ONGC dropped nearly 2% to Rs 1,323. Larsen & Toubro slipped 2.4% to Rs 2,691.

TCS slumped 2.4% to Rs 1,928. Infosys slipped 1.8% to Rs 3,147. Satyam and Wipro shed 1.3% each to Rs 763 and Rs 526, respectively.

HDFC Bank and BHEL were the only gainers in the Sensex today, and closed at Rs 826 and Rs 2,331, respectively.

Other Gainers & Losers

Entertainment Network and Rama Newsprint hit the 20% upper limit at Rs 263 and Rs 13.81, respectively. Shriram City, Subex System, FCS Software, Rohit Ferro, Satam Overseas, Hindustan Zinc, Nandan Exim and Provogue were up 10-17% each.

Sun TV and Indotech slumped nearly 11% each to Rs 1,309 and Rs 218, respectively. Whirpool, 3M India, Wendt India, Kalyani Steel, Essar Steel, Monnet Ispat, Jindal Saw Pipes, Ispat Industries, CMC, IPCL, SAIL, Jindal Stainless, India Cements, MTNL and Canara Bank were the other major losers today.

Value & Volumes Toppers

Hindustan Zinc topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 217.42 crore followed by Sun TV (Rs 188.51 crore), Satyam (Rs 155.26 crore), Reliance (Rs 143.49 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 132.71 crore).

Debutant Godawari Power led the volume chart with trades of around 1.04 crore shares. The stock was listed at Rs 90 as against the issue price of Rs 81. The stock zoomed to a high of Rs 136 before closing on Day 1 at Rs 103.

Godawari was followed by Essar Oil (75.75 lakh), Hindustan Motors (66 lakh), IFCI (64.78 lakh) and Ashok Leyland (56.54 lakh).

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