The index soon plunged to a low of 17,308 - down 9.2% (1,744 points) - following which trading was suspended for one hour - only the 3rd instance in the last three years.
The first trading halt happened on May 17, 2004 when the index crashed 16.6% (a swing of 842 points) in intra-day deals following the change in government. The second instance was on May 22, 2004 when the Sensex hit the lower circuit, and the intra-day swing was 1,316 points on account of a meltdown in global metal stocks.
The statement by Finance Minister P Chidambaram that there is no proposal to ban PNs, and overseas investors are welcome to invest in India via the FII route helped the index recover after the 1-hour trading halt.
Sebi, in a clarification, reiterated that there is no proposal to ban PNs, and FIIs can write/renew PNs with a timelimit of 18 months, which also boosted sentiment.
The Sensex recovered sharply from the day's low (17,308 points) and touched an intra-day high of 18,841 points - up 1,533 points (8.9%) from the day's low.
The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 336 points (1.8%) at 18,716.
The Nifty closed at 5,559, down 109 points.
The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,724 stocks traded, 1,755 declined, 923 advanced and 46 were unchanged today.
INDEX SHAKERS...
Reliance Energy slumped 7.5% to Rs 1,762. ACC and SBI plunged 5% each to Rs 1,203 and Rs 1,829, respectively.
BHEL and NTPC tumbled over 4.5% each to Rs 2,283 and Rs 221, respectively.
Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, HDFC and ONGC slipped around 4% each to Rs 780, Rs 869, Rs 2,470 and Rs 1,130, respectively.
ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and HDFC Bank dropped 3% each to Rs 1,121, Rs 1,076, Rs 737 and Rs 1,460, respectively.
Cipla, Ambuja Cements and Dr.Reddy's shed around 2.5% each to Rs 179, Rs 149 and Rs 606, respectively.
Ranbaxy, Grasim, Bajaj Auto and Hindustan Unilever were down around 2% each to Rs 420, Rs 3,675, Rs 2,489 and Rs 208, respectively.
...AND THE MOVERS
TCS surged 2.5% to Rs 1,095. Satyam advanced 1.6% to Rs 457, and Infosys added 1% to Rs 1,890.
Reliance moved up over 1.5% to Rs 2,690.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 988.50 crore followed by Reliance Energy (Rs 794.30 crore), Power Grid (Rs 607.50 crore), Tata Power (Rs 401.20 crore) and Reliance Petroleum (Rs 398.80 crore).
Power Grid led the volume chart with trades of around 4.77 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (3.68 crore), Reliance Petroleum (2.27 crore), Tata Teleservices (2.21 crore) and IFCI (1.22 crore).