Sensex crashes on Black Monday
The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex extended losses to more than 6 percent today, joining a global equities rout on growing fears of financial trouble after a fire sale of Bear Stearns and the US Fed cut its discount rate.
The 30-share BSE barometer settled the day below 15k level at 14,809.49 points, a loss of 951.03 points. It touched the day’s low of 14,838.27 and a high of 15,326.93 points. The key index is closing below the 15k level for the first time since June 29, 2007.
The 50-share National Stock Exchange index Nifty dropped 242.70 points at 4,503.10, after touching a low of 4,482.10 and a high of 4,745.45 points. Nifty’s last dip below 4,500 points was on September 17 last year.
Capital goods index bore the maximum brunt of 873.63 points at 12,706.31, followed by banking index by 753.93 points at 7569.16. Bank shares remained the centre of brisk activity after the US Fed decided to cut borrowing rates.
The Fed is stepping up efforts to prevent strains on financial markets from worsening. The rate-cut decision, taken ahead of the Asian trading day, coincided with JP Morgan buying Bear Stearns for about 1/40th its share price of a month ago.
A steep fall in other Asian markets led by Hong Kong also had an adverse impact on the market.
Index heavyweights ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries led the losses.
Second-largest lender ICICI Bank fell 6.5 percent, and largest listed firm Reliance Industries was down 3.5 percent.
Source : saharasamay.com
