Sensex sheds another 800pts, down over 50% from peak

The Sensex opened with a huge negative gap of 696 points at 10,632 on the back of negative cues from the global markets amid liquidity crunch as fears of a deeper US recession worried investors worldwide.

The index soon tumbled to a low of 10,240 - down 1,088 points (9.6%). The Sensex, however, recovered smartly from the day's low and touched a high of 10,904 on back of the news that the RBI has decided to cut CRR by 150 bps as against 50 bps announced earlier in the week.

The recovery, however, was cut short as poor IIP numbers pushed back the index to lower levels. The Sensex thereafter witnessed alternate bouts of buying and selling and finally settled with a loss of 800 points (7%) at 10,528.

In the process, the index ended the week with a hefty loss of 16% (1,998 points), and is down over 50% (10,679 points) from its peak of 21,207 touched in January this year.

The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,619 stocks traded, 2,187 declined, 384 advanced and 48 were unchanged today.

IN FREE FALL MODE...

Reliance Communications plummeted 21% to Rs 237. ICICI Bank and Reliance Infrastructure nose-dived over 19% each to Rs 364 and Rs 515, respectively.

Jaiprakash Associates slumped over 16% to Rs 76. Tata Steel crashed 15% to Rs 288.

Hindalco tumbled over 11% to Rs 81. HDFC and DLF cracked around 9% each to Rs 1,719 and Rs 282, respectively.

BHEL and Larsen & Toubro plunged over 8% each to Rs 1,346 and Rs 889, respectively.

...OTHER SHAKERS

Reliance slipped 7.5% to Rs 1,527. Hindustan Unilever and Wipro shed 6.7% each at Rs 222 and Rs 263, respectively.

Sterlite and Grasim dropped over 6% each to Rs 274 and Rs 1,477, respectively.

Bharti Airtel, Satyam, NTPC and HDFC Bank declined around 5.5% each to Rs 691, Rs 250, Rs 166 and Rs 1,046, respectively.

ACC and ONGC were down around 5% each at Rs 542 and Rs 916, respectively.

...AND THE MOVERS

Ranbaxy surged 4.7% to Rs 292, and SBI advanced over 2% to Rs 1,352.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

ICICI Bank topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 428 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 325 crore), Bharti Airtel (Rs 283 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 231 crore) and SBI (Rs 186 crore).

ICICI Bank led the volume chart with trades of around 1.16 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (94 lakh), Apollo Tyres (86 lakh), IFCI (85.25 lakh) and Jaiprakash Associates (83.85 lakh).