Intense selling in blue chips pushed the market down further in early afternoon trade. Two index heavyweights Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank tumbled. An overnight sharp fall in US stocks and rise in oil prices weighed on the Indian market today. Healthcare and IT stocks hovered in positive terrain bucking the weak market trend.
US stocks declined sharply on Thursday, 24 July 2008, after a report showing yet another drop in US home sales prompted investors to take profits in financial shares, which had rallied over the past week. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 283.10 points, or 2.43%, to close at 11,349.28. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 29.65 points, or 2.31%, to 1,252.54, while the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 45.77 points, or 1.97%, to 2,280.11.
Asian market, which opened before Indian markets, declined further. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, China and Singapore were down by between 1.13% to 1.97%.
At 12:20 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was down 425.8 points or 2.88% at 14,351.20. The index lost 461.43 points at the days low of 14,315.58, hit in mid-morning trade. Sensex lost 292.62 points at the day's high of 14,484.39, hit in early trade.
The broader based S&P CNX Nifty slipped 95.05 points or 2.14% at 4338.50.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.60% to 5,547.65 and the BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.35% to 6,772.42.
The market breadth was weak on BSE with 873 shares advancing as compared to 1401 that declined. 79 remained unchanged.
Bharti Airtel (up 1.85% at Rs 812.15), Hindalco Industries (up 1.58% at Rs 154), Hindustan Unilever (up 1.38% at Rs 231), Reliance Communication (up 1.02% at Rs 506.40), were the top gainers from the Sensex pack.
HDFC Bank (down 7.18% at Rs 1127), Housing Development Finance Corporation (down 7.21% at Rs 2185), Reliance Infrastructure (down 3.51% at Rs 991), Jaiprakash Associates (down 3.16% at Rs 165.75), and DLF (down 3.32% at Rs 490.35), were the top losers from the Sensex pack.
Indias largest private sector bank by assets ICICI Bank slumped 8.38% to Rs 665.90.
Indias largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries slipped 5.51% to Rs 2,179.45. Strong refining margins helped Reliance Industries (RIL) post 13.2% growth in net profit to Rs 4,110 crore on 41% growth in turnover to Rs 41,805 crore in Q1 June 2008 over Q1 June 2007. Nearly 95% of the increase in turnover was due to increase in prices, with volume increases accounting for the rest, said a press release from the company.
Healthcare stocks rose on defensive buying strategy by investors. Piramal Healthcare (up 3.81% at Rs 309), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 3.20% at Rs 681), Sterlite Biotech (up 2.80% at Rs 205.90), Divi's Laboratories (up 1.72% at Rs 1,410), and Ranbaxy Laboratories (up 0.28% at Rs 468), gained. The BSE Healthcare index was up 0.21% at 4,192.50.
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