Black Monday again: Biggest ever point fall for mkts

It was a highly dramatic and scary day for markets as markets saw their biggest ever fall. It was the worst day of trading in our trading history as the pace of the fall was unnerving. We started weak and with heavy bouts of selling was seen during the day with Sensex and Nifty down almost 12% at one point of time. Sensex went below 17,000 mark during the course of the day and Nifty sub 5000 mark.

BSE was shut for a brief period of time however it resumed trading immediately. Later it recovered Sensex recovered 700 points from the day's low and finally Nifty closed down 8.5% and Sensex was down 7%.

Sensex closed down 1,408.35 points or 7.41% at 17605.35, and the Nifty down 496.50 points or 8.70% at 5208.80.

About 213 shares have advanced, 2746 shares declined, and 22 shares are unchanged.

Before this the markets saw the second highest point fall on May 18, 2006; Sensex was down 826 pts (6.76%) on account of Government circular on taxing investment gains; heavy selling by FIIs, retail investors and a weakness in global markets.

On April 28, 1992; Sensex was down 570 pts (12.77%) on account of Harshad Mehta securities scam. On May 17, 2004; Black Monday. Sensex was down by 565 points on concerns over NDA losing election to loses BJP.

It has not only been the pressure from global peers but on the domestic front also with increased unwinding pressure the fall has been accentuated.

Even experts were a bit shaken and shocked with the nasty fall. According to Raamdeo Agarwal with global news not favourable there might be a further fall in the markets. He feels that Indian markets can't remain isolated when selling is seen in markets across globe including Asia.

Markets broke all the important technical and psychological levels.According to analyst the scenario was similar to the May 2006 fall. There is pressure due to triggering of margin call. Nifty Futures is trading at 100 points discount.

India was the worst performing market today in Asia; US recession fears have aggravated which led to Japan's Nikkei declining 3.865% or 535.35 points, Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 4.425% or 1115.12 points Singapore's Straits Times slipped 3.23 and South Korea's Seoul Composite fell 2.95%.

Europe is trading extremely weak with DAX down over 3% followed by CAC and FTSE.

After seeing a sharp fall of over 15%, the BSE midcap and smallcap index closed down 10%.

Realty, metal, midcap index have collapsed, however all the BSE indices were trading with huge cuts. BSE realty and metal index were down over 13%, followed by power and oil & gas index was down over 10%. Pharma  and auto were down over 7%.

Among the biggest midcap losers Nagarjuna Fert, WWIL, Oswal Chem down 33%, Essar Oil down 30% Ispat Ind was down 30%, Bajaj Hind down 28% and Chambal & Arvind down 26%.

Among the top Nifty losers RPL, REL, Bajaj Auto were down 19%, Tata Power down 16%.

The BSE Midcap Index ended at 7,881.99 down 11%.

The BSE Smallcap Index ended at 10,911.66 down 10%.

The BSE Bankex ended at 10,582.01 down 7%. ICICI Bank, Centurion Bank, HDFC Bank, Federal Bank, Canara Bank moved downwards.

The BSE Capital Goods Index closed down 7% at 17,087.82. Triveni Engg, Siemens, L&T, Thermax closed lower.

The BSE Auto Index closed at 4,664.53 down 10%.  Hind Motors, Bharat Forge, Tube Investment, Maruti Suzuki, Apollo Tyres closed lower.

The BSE Metal Index closed at 14,963.38 down 13%. Among the top losers were Jindal Steel down 27%, SAIL down 13%, Tata Steel down 8%.

The BSE FMCG Index closed down 6% at 2,173.21.  Colgate, ITC, Bata India, Godrej Consumer, HUL, GlaxoSmith Con closed lower

BSE Oil and Gas Index closed at 11,089.33 down 12%. RIL down 9.3%, ONGC down 7.9%. Reliance Natura, HPCL, RPL also ended in red
 
BSE power index closed at 3,828.81 down 11%. Torrent Power, NTPC, Reliance Energy, Tata Power, Power Grid Corp, Crompton Greave ended in red.

The BSE IT Index was down 6% at 3,573.25. I-Flex Solution, Patni Computer, Financial Tech, Mphasis, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Infosys closed lower.

The NSE cash turnover was at Rs 24508.6 crore and the NSE F&O turnover was at Rs 82241.65 crore. The BSE cash turnover was Rs 9305.91 crore. Total market wide turnover was at Rs 116056.16 crore.