Markets ends with deep cut; Sensex below 17000 mark

09 May 2008

The markets witnessed huge selling pressure in late trade due to big weakness in oil & gas, realty, banking, capital goods and power stocks. The Sensex and Nifty breached their psychological levels i.e. 17000 and 5000, respectively. Heavyweights like Reliance Petro, Reliance Infra, Reliance and JP Associates were biggest losers.

Market breadth was pathetic, nearly 1:5. Midcap and small cap stocks also hammered. On the global front, Asian markets ended lower. European markets were trading weak, at the time of writing report.

Top midcap losers were Spice Comm, Bombay Dyeing, Chennai Petro, Moser Baer, Nagarjuna Fert, HCC and Essar Shipping

Biggest draggers were Oil and gas stocks like Essar Oil, Reliance Natural, Reliance Industries, Petronet LNG, GAIL and BPCL. The BSE Oil & Gas Index slipped 4.71% or 547.57 points at 11,080.88 (touched an intraday low of 11,020.43). The Nymex crude has hit USD 124.58 per barrel in the morning.

Realty stocks also collapsed like pack of card. The BSE Realty Index fell 2.95% or 239.60 points at 7,891.10 as selling pressure seen in HDIL, Puravankara Pro, Unitech, Omaxe, Ansal Properties, Parsvnath, Sobha Developers, Akruti City and DLF.

Banking stocks including Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, PNB, SBI, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda and ICICI Bank have lost money, which pulled the BSE Bankex down by 2.78% or 243.83 points at 8,511.65.
 
The BSE Capital Goods Index cracked 1.99% at 13,109.36 due to weakness in Astra Microwave, Triveni Engg, Kirloskar Bros, Punj Lloyd, Suzlon Energy, BHEL, L&T and BEML.