Sensex ends below 15,000, ICICI drops 14%

The Sensex opened with a huge negative gap of 433 points at 15,327 on weak cues from the overseas markets. Unabated selling saw the index slip below the 15,000-mark in early trades, and dropped below that level again in noon deals.

The Sensex hit a low of 14,738, and finally ended with a hefty loss of 951 points (6%) at 14,809 - its second biggest single-day fall. The index is down a whopping 5,478 points (27%) so far this year.
 

BIG BAD DAY'S
Date	Close	Prv Cls	Chg	% Chg
21-Jan-08	17605.40	19013.70	-1408.35	-7.41
17-Mar-08	14809.50	15760.52	-951.03	-6.03
03-Mar-08	16677.90	17578.72	-900.84	-5.12
22-Jan-08	16729.94	17605.40	-875.41	-4.97
11-Feb-08	16630.90	17464.90	-833.98	-4.78
18-May-06	11391.43	12217.81	-826.38	-6.76

The Mid-cap and Small-cap indices shed 7% each at 6,124 (459 points) and 7,522 (557 points), respectively.

The BSE Bankex dropped 9% (754 points) to 7,569. The Realty index slumped nearly 8% (606 points) to 7,106, and the Metal index declined 7.5% (1,119 points) to 13,725.

The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,716 stocks traded, 2,404 declined, 282 advanced and 30 were unchanged on Monday.

The NSE Nifty dropped 243 points (5.1%) to end at 4,503.

The Asian markets, too, had a bad day following negative cues from the US markets. While the Hang Seng plunged 1,153 points (5.2%) to 21,085. Nikkei slumped 454 points (3.7%) to 11,788. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 143 points (3.6%) to 3,820.

Slide show

ICICI Bank crashed nearly 14% (Rs 121) to Rs 757. HDFC slumped 11% (Rs 277) to Rs 2,226. While HDFC Bank slipped nearly 6% to Rs 1,239, SBI declined 4.7% to Rs 1,633.

Jaiprakash Associates tumbled 12% (Rs 28) to Rs 208. DLF plunged nearly 8% to Rs 603, and Larsen & Toubro dropped 7% to Rs 2,704.

Hindalco slumped over 9% (Rs 17) to Rs 165. Tata Steel shed 8% at Rs 659.

Reliance Energy tumbled over 8% to Rs 1,191. Reliance Communications slipped nearly 7% to Rs 483.

Reliance declined over 6% to Rs 2,181. Infosys was down 2.5% at Rs 1,336.

Grasim dropped 6.5% at Rs 2,671. Ranbaxy slipped 5.6% to Rs 438. Tata Motors and BHEL dropped around 4.5% each to Rs 606 and Rs 1,796, respectively. 

Major Gainers			Major Losers
Name	Close	% Chg	Name	Close	% Chg
AMD Industries	29.65	13.0	Gandhi Special	81.55	-55.0
Rane Madras	66.80	11.3	Orchid Chemicals	127.05	-39.1
Goldcrest Finance	25.90	10.0	Brels Infotech	1.30	20.7
Pressure Sensitive	3.53	10.0	Prithvi Information	139.65	20.0
Elpro International	679.00	10.0	Indus Fila	146.55	20.0
(Close = Stock pirce at the end of day in Rs)

Most active counters

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 274 crore followed by GSS America (Rs 237 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 232.50 crore), Reliance Petroleum (Rs 215.50 crore) and Orchid Chemicals (Rs 207 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 2.27 crore shares followed by Orchid Chemicals (1.55 crore), Reliance Petroleum (1.37 crore), V Guard (1.30 crore) and Ispat Industries (1.11 crore).