Bullish Sensex crashes 542 points, investors wary

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Taking cues from weak global markets and large-scale selling in blue chip stocks, the Sensex opened weak at 15,487.76 points Friday, down 288.55 points from Thursday's close at 15,776.31 points.

The benchmark index then touched an intra-day high of 15,495.51 points but, by noon, it fell to the day's low of 15,159.68 points and settled at the current level after wild fluctuations.

At this level, the index is at its lowest since July 12. It had shed 4.7 percent on April 2.

Interestingly, as many as 27 out of 30 shares that go into the Sensex basket ended in the red. The three shares that withstood the wrath of the bear were FMCG major ITC, up 3.12 percent at Rs. 171.80, pharmaceutical major Ranbaxy Laboratories, up 0.40 percent at Rs. 374.90 and cement manufacturer Ambuja Cement, up 0.28 percent at Rs. 125.05.

Tata Steel led the fall, down 7.37 percent at Rs. 651.60, followed by Reliance Communications, down 5.65 percent at Rs. 537.35 and Bharat Heavy Electricals, down 5.40 percent at Rs. 1,660.40.

Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), Hindalco, Larsen and Toubro (L&T), Reliance Energy, Satyam Computers, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and HDFC Bank also ended in the red.

Other losers were IT bellwether Infosys Technologies and Sensex heavyweight Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL).

Infosys dropped Rs. 48.15 or 2.4 per cent to Rs. 1,986.80 while Reliance shed 1.3 percent or Rs. 26 to Rs. 1,915. The two stocks account for about a quarter of the BSE index's weight.

Selling by foreign and domestic funds was sparked by report of a major plunge in global stock markets such as Nasdaq, Dow Jones Industrial, Nikkei and Hang Seng.

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