Nifty ends below 2700; bank, auto, oil, CG stocks drag

01 December 2008

Rate sensitive, infrastructure and oil stocks dragged the benchmark indices lower in the last couple of hours' trade. The Nifty and Sensex closed below 2700 and 9000 levels, respectively. These indices had opened lower and as the day progressed, the Nifty crossed 2800 mark as well. However, when the sell-off started in European indices and US markets futures at around 1:30 pm, our indices also followed the same trend. Midcap and small cap stocks also witnessing selling pressure in late trade.

The Sensex shed nearly 487 points from day's high 9,326.68 and ended at 8,839.87, down 252.85 points or 2.78% from previous close. The 50-share NSE Nifty tumbled 72.20 points or 2.62%, to settle at 2,682.90. It lost 150 points from day's high of 2832.85.

Volumes were quite low in today's trade; total turnover stood at Rs 43,459.05 crore. It was the second lowest turnover in 2008. This includes Rs 8,385.99 crore from NSE cash segment, Rs 32,155.44 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 2,917.62 crore from BSE cash segment.

Among the frontliners, DLF, Maruti Suzuki, ICICI Bank, Reliance Infrastructure, BHEL, Ranbaxy Labs and PNB plummeted 5-10%. However, Grasim, Tata Steel, TCS, Sterlite Industries, Reliance Communication, Unitech, BPCL and GAIL were gainers.

Realty, auto, banking, power, capital goods, FMCG, pharma and oil stocks pulled the markets lower.

BSE Realty Index underperformed other indices, fell 83.36 points or 5.34% to 1,477.65. DLF crashed 9.96%. Akruti City, Orbit Corporation, Parsvnath and Indiabulls Real Estate lost 4-6%. However, Unitech gained 3.67%.