Small BusinessRate sensitives' dismiss markets
Aggressive selling in rate sensitive stocks, couple of days ahead of the RBI policy review, saw the markets tank heavily. The RBI is scheduled to review its monetary policy on January 29. Markets fear hike of Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), which in turn could affect these sectors.
This morning, the Asian markets were mixed. However, the bears were in no mood to relent. Soon, after the markets opened they exerted pressure and the indices headed south as the day progressed. The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 71 points, and could not move an inch higher. The index tumbled to a low of 16,231, and finally ended with a huge loss of 491 points at 16,290. In the process, the index has plunged 1,351 points (7.7%) in the last six trading days.
Wipro, Hindalco and Mahindra & Mahindra dropped nearly 6% each to Rs 655, Rs 150 and Rs 1,012, respectively.
Maruti, SBI and ICICI Bank declined around 5% each. Hero Honda, Sterlite, HDFC Bank, NTPC, Jaiprakash Associates, HDFC and Reliance Infrastructure were down 3-4% each.
ITC, however, bucked the trend and was the sole gainer among the Sensex stocks. The stock ended a rupee higher at Rs 256.
VALUE & VOLUMER TOPPERS
SBI topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 195.69 crore on the BSE followed by Tata Steel (Rs 193.64 crore), Jai Corp (Rs 157.40 crore), DLF (Rs 124.59 crore) and Reliance (Rs 114.52 crore).
Unitech led the volume chart with trades of around 13.37 million shares followed by Suzlon (11.21 million), RCF (8.85 million), National Fertilisers (8.39 million) and Satyam (8.37 million).