Nifty ends below 2900 amid volatility; metal tanks 7 per cent

09 January 2009

The benchmark indices continued the downtrend for the second consecutive day and ended sharply lower amid high volatility. Shares of oil exploration, capital goods, metal, telecom, and select power and banking companies witnessed steep fall. Sell-off was also seen in broader indices. However, shares of major technology, FMCG, oil marketing and select auto companies as well as NTPC remained on the higher side.

Wednesday's culprit Satyam has seen quite sharp cut today as well. The stock has touched a new 52-week low of 6.30 on the NSE and lost around 41%, to close at Rs 23.75. There were still pending sell orders of 224,349 shares, with no buyers available. It traded with volumes of 215,560,932 shares, an increase of 149.46% compared to its 5-day average of 86,411,144 shares. Friday was the last day of the stock in the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty, which will be replaced by Sun Pharma and Reliance Capital from January 12, respectively.

The 50-share NSE Nifty went closer to 2800 level and hit a low of 2810.25 during the day. It shut shop at 2,873, down by 1.62% or 47.40 points from previous close. The 30-share BSE Sensex was down more than 300 points during the day and touched a low of 9,250.82. It was down by 180.41 points or 1.88%, to settle at 9,406.47.

Leading contributors to this fall were Reliance Industries, ONGC, Reliance Communication, L&T, SAIL, DLF, Sterlite Industries, Bharti, Tata Steel and BHEL. However, NTPC, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Sun Pharma, Maruti and HUL tried to support the markets a bit.

Metal stocks took huge beating on the bourses today, after the news that Goldman Sachs downgraded POSCO to neutral from buy. Index tumbled 7.16% or 401.38 points to 5,203.86. Sterlite Industries, SAIL and Tata Steel went down 8-9.6%. JSL, Jindal Saw, JSW Steel, NALCO and Hindalco fell 3.8-6%.

Selling was also seen in real estate space. Realty Index was down by 101.11 points or 5.15% at 1,864.09. DLF lost 7.25% and Unitech fell 1.37%. DLF recovered nearly 50% from day's low, as Ramesh Sanka, CFO cleared that he has not resigned from the company.