Sensex sheds 336pts on weak global cues

Weak global cues and weakness in realty and metal stocks led to today's fall on the Sensex.

The markets started the week on an extremely weak note owing to negative global cues. The Sensex opened at 17,070, and soon tumbled way below the 17,000-mark. The US markets were mainly to be blamed for the dismal state of affairs. Wall Street had tumbled on Friday due to disappointing US payroll data, with the Dow Jones falling below 10,000-mark to rest at 9931, down 323 points.

The BSE benchmark index soon slipped to a low of 16,686, down 431 points from the previous close. The markets continued to exhibit weak movement throughout the day. The Sensex finally ended at 16,781, down 336 points and the NSE Nifty settled 101 points down at 5,034.

The Asian markets ended in the red, major indices like Hang Seng declined 2% and the Nikkei shed 4%, respectively.

The metal and the realty indices were the major draggers among the sectoral indices.The metal stocks cracked deeply today with the frontline stocks shedding 5% each after LMEX a gauge of six metals closed at 2,843.30 on Friday, a lowest level since October 6, 2009. The index fell 4% on June 4, 2010, and has slumped almost 25% from its recent high of 3,767.70 touched on April 15.
Sesa Goa and Hindalco Industries declined 5% each to Rs 348 and Rs 140, respectively on the metal index.

Realty stock were also under tremendous selling pressure on reports that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has decided to enquire, on its accord, if various developers are misleading the buyers, to check the rampant malpractices in the realty sector. DLF and Indiabulls Real Estate shed 6% and 4%, respectiely on the realty index.

The market breadth was negative, out of 2,865 shares traded, 1,907 declined and 870 advanced on the BSE.

INDEX LOSERS...

DLF shed 6% to Rs 264. The other major losers were Hindalco Industries, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Sterlite and Bharti Airtel, down 3-5% each. ICICI Bank, Jindal Steel, HDFC, Reliance Infrastructure and BHEL were down 2-3% each.

...AND THE GAINERS

Reliance Communications added 5% at Rs 176 and ACC was up 1% at Rs 849, respectively on the BSE.

The midcap and the smallcap indices were down 1.5% each.Rajesh Exports and Mcleod Russel shed 6% each to Rs 83 and Rs 172, respectively on the Midcap index.Hinduja Ventures and PVR slipped 7% to Rs 252 and Rs 159, respectively on the smallcap index.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance Communications topped the value chart on the BSE with a turover of Rs 193.93 crore. It was followed by Tata Steel (Rs 118.79 crore), SBI (Rs 92.93 crore), Sesa Goa (Rs 86.10 crore) and Tata Motors (Rs 59.88 crore).

Reliance Communications has also topped the volumes chart with trades of 11.5 million shares. It was followed by Shree Ashtavinayak (6.43 million), FCS Software (4.61 million), Dev Credit Bank (4.08 million) and Suzlon Energy (3.9 million).