BSE Sensex plunges 654 points to close below 13K; Financial stocks drag on subprime woes

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The 30-share prime index shed 654.32 points to close below 13,000 level at 12,676.19, with all the components ending in the red.

The Sensex touched an intraday high of 13,067.08 and a low of 12,605. The index, which hit a record high of 21,206.77 on Jan. 10, is down about 39.2 percent this year.

The top loser of the day was Ranbaxy Laboratories, which plunged 14.01 percent to close at Rs.409.25. Ranbaxy saw its shares tumble for the second day in a row this week on concerns that the charges leveled against India's top generics drug maker by the US Government, of selling substandard drugs in the US market and forging and concealing important documents to get US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval in its favor, could have serious ramifications on its sales in the US market from where it gets a quarter of its total revenues.

Financial stocks HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and State Bank of India (SBI) tripped 11.26 percent, 8.72 percent, 6.86 percent and 6.35 percent to close at Rs.916.40, Rs.529.30, Rs.1800.30 and Rs.1177.80 respectively.

Market analysts said that Indian banks have no direct exposure to the US subprime mortgage sector, yet, the global financial sector turmoil has kept market sentiments subdued and has raised worries of more withdrawals by foreign funds.

Auto majors Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki declined 4.48 percent and 3.52 percent to close at Rs.521.95 and Rs.548.95 respectively.

FMCG majors ITC and Hindustan Unilever sank 4.98 percent and 3.44 percent to close at Rs.160.30 and Rs.211.65 respectively.

Telecom majors Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel tumbled 7.22 percent and 3.65 percent to close at Rs.406.10 and Rs.709.95 respectively.

Other major losers were Hindalco (down 8.30 percent at Rs.138.10), BHEL (down 6.66 percent at Rs.1372.05), Wipro (down 6.54 percent at Rs.377.95), DLF (down 6.33 percent at Rs.426.95), Reliance Infrastructure (down 6.14 percent at Rs.767.70), Jaiprakash Associates (down 6.04 percent at Rs.145.35), Tata Steel (down 5.42 percent at Rs.647), Larsen & Toubro (down 4.68 percent at Rs.2279.55) and ONGC (down 3.63 percent at Rs.845).

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