Sensex sheds 323 points; tech, realty stocks tank

Despite opening with a positive gap of 108 points at 14,432, the Sensex soon slipped into the negative zone owing to weaknes in technology stocks. The index extended losses in late morning trades as weakness spread to financial and realty stocks.

The index recovered partially in early noon trades on the back of better-than-expected only to fall back sharply in late noon trades. Aggressive selling in late noon trades, especially in technology and realty stocks, saw the index slide past the 14,000-mark to a low of 13,934.

The Sensex finally ended with a significant loss of 323 points at 14,001.

The BSE IT index plunged 4.6% (184 points) to 3,807. The Realty index shed 3.7% (182 points) at 4,694. The Bankex and Oil & Gas indices were down 2.5% each at 7,029 and 9,116, respectively.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,740 stocks traded, 1,848 declined, 818 advanced and the rest were unchanged on Friday.

INDEX SHAKERS. . .

Infosys slumped 6% to Rs 1,644. Satyam and TCS dropped around 3.5% each to Rs 407 and Rs 808, respectively. Wipro was down 1.7% at Rs 420.

Reliance Infrastructure plunged over 6% to Rs 929. DLF shed 3.6% at Rs 468, and Jaiprakash Associates tumbled 3% to Rs 158.

ICICI Bank slipped nearly 5% to Rs 653. HDFC plunged nearly 4% to Rs 2,179, and SBI was down 1.7% at Rs 1,512.

Reliance dropped 3.3% to Rs 1,931. Sterlite and Tata Motors shed 3% each at Rs 487 and Rs 412, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra and Reliance Communications slipped 2% each to Rs 551 and Rs 391, respectively.

. . .AND THE MOVERS

Maruti surged 3.6% to Rs 704. BHEL gained 2% at Rs 1,697.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 453.50 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 313.35 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 208.65 crore), Reliance Infrastructure (Rs 175.25 crore) and Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 160.75 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 1.79 crore shares followed by IFCI (1.46 crore), Chambal Fertilisers (56 lakh), Austral Coke (55.40 lakh) and Reliance Power (47 lakh).