Sensex confronts China scare

The Sensex today opened with a negative gap of 39 points at 15,293. The index rebounded into the positive zone to touch a high of 15,379.

The index mirrored trends in Chinese markets and fell nearly 500 points from the day's high, to a low of 14,888. The Shanghai Composite dropped 264 points in the day and finally ended with a loss of 172 points at 3,266 - due to fall in commodity (copper) prices. Meanwhile, the Chinese government also reduced gasoline prices by 3% citing lower demand from industries. 

However, recovery in IT stocks and positive cues from the European markets helped the indices recover partially. The Sensex finally ended at 15,173, down 158 points.

The Sensex has, in the process, declined 206 points in the last three days.

The BSE realty, consumer durables and metal indices dropped 2-4% each.

The market breadth was fairly negative, Out of 2,724 stocks traded, 1,558 stocks declined while 1,089 advanced.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty ended with a loss of 51 points at 4,514.

INDEX SHAKERS...

DLF slumped 6.5% to Rs 398. Tata Steel and Sterlite plunged 5.5% each to Rs 442 and Rs 621, respectively.

Sun Pharma and Tata Motors tumbled 5% each to Rs 1,188 and Rs 394.  Grasim and Reliance Infrastructure dropped 4% each.

Hindustan Unilever, Reliance Communications, Jaiprakash Associates, Larsen & Toubro, Hero Honda and NTPC also declined.

Among the other Nifty stocks, SAIL, Axis Bank, ABB and Cipla dropped 3-5% each.

...AND MOVERS

TCS surged 4% to Rs 500. Tata Power added 3% to Rs 1,302. Mahindra & Mahindra and Hindalco also moved up marginally.

In Nifty, Punjab National Bank, Jindal Steel, BPCL and Power Grid Corporation gained.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Tata Steel topped the combined value chart on the BSE, NSE with a turnover of Rs 1,277.59 crore, followed by Unitech (Rs 1,208.59 crore), Reliance (Rs 1,166.71 crore), Jindal Steel (Rs 1,023.77 crore) and Aban Offshore (Rs 980.2 crore).

The combined volume chart was led by Unitech with trades of over 132 million shares. It was followed by Suzlon (92.69 million), Ispat Industries (68.88 million), Reliance Natural Resources (67.38 million) and Firstsource (47.5 million).