Sensex crashes by 678 points to 18,603

Mirroring weakness in other Asian markets, the Sensex opened with a negative gap of 83 points at 19,198. The index after slipping a bit more tried to recover but could only manage to touch a high of 19,219.

Relentless selling, thereafter, saw the index slip deeper into red as the day progressed. The index tumbled to a low of 18,515 - down 766 points from the previous close. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 678 points at 18,603 - third biggest single-day loss in absolute terms in history.

The Nifty lost 220 points to close at 5,561.

The BSE Metal and Power indices plunged 6% each to 16,254. and 4246, respectively. The Bankex and Realty indices dropped 5% each to 10,228 and 9954, respectively.

The market breadth was very negative - out of 2,854 stocks traded, 2,201 declined, 629 advanced and 24 were unchanged today.

Index Draggers...

NTPC tumbled 8% to Rs 240. BHEL slumped 6.3% to Rs 2,486, and ITC plunged 6% to Rs 185.

Maruti tumbled nearly 6% to Rs 951. Reliance Energy, ICICI Bank and SBI shed 5.5% each at Rs 1,693, Rs 1,103 and Rs 2,155, respectively.

Larsen & Toubro and Hindalco dropped over 5% each to Rs 4,109 and Rs 185, respectively. Tata Steel plunged 4.4% to Rs 822.

DLF and Reliance Communications slipped around 4% each to Rs 871 and Rs 682, respectively.

Grasim and Ranbaxy declined 3.7% each to Rs 3,625 and Rs 399, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and HDFC Bank were down 3% each at Rs 707, Rs 687 and Rs 1,583, respectively.
 

Major Gainers			Major Losers
Name	Close	% Chg	Name	Close	% Chg
In House Prod	22.05	72.8	Rama Pul	38.00	15.1
Acrysil	70.70	20.0	Kirferrous	23.05	14.6
Dharan Sug	22.90	19.9	SQL Star	44.45	14.4
JCT Elect	2.73	19.7	Chambal Fert	64.40	13.9
Orient Inf	19.45	19.0	Gangotri	35.55	13.7
(Close = Stock pirce at the end of day in Rs)

Value & Volume Toppers

Debutant Religare topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 602 crore followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs 382 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 267 crore), Reliance (Rs 262 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 197 crore).

Tata Teleservices led the volume chart with trades of around 2.13 crore shares followed by Reliance Petroleum (1.84 crore), IFCI (1.77 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (1.71 crore) and Bellary Steel (1.46 crore).