As if global turmoil was not reason enough, with every indicators pointing to possible US recession, besides spurting oil prices, on domestic front, slide in the country’s index of industrial production growth came as a double whammy.

Pivotal prices

With the result, as panic gripped players and investors of all hues turned bearish going on a selling spree, the benchmark Sensex skittled to its six-and-a-half month low of 15,357.35 points in its sixth biggest fall of 770.63 points. It seemed as if doomsday had gripped Dalal Street on Thursday as pivotal prices fell like nine pins pummelling the 30-share BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex), which opened with wide downside gap of nearly 255 points and continued its slide to end the day 4.78 per cent lower at 15,357.35  —  a level not seen since August 31, 2007 when it closed at 15,318.60 points. Call it the sharp left hook in the pugilist’s parlance, the country’s popular benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty, at Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE), at mid session lost nearly 800 points due to panic selling by funds on various counts. In the process, if Sensex breached January lows of 15,332 again, Nifty too mimicked and followed slipping below 4600 level.

Dull turnover

As much as 28 shares out of 30-member Sensex pack finished with losses. Turnover was dull and stocks from real estate, metal and capital goods sector were the worst hit.

The 30-share index, which commenced the day on a weak note, tumbled further in mid session, as the market resumed trading after brief halt due to sun outage, and after hovering a bit closed at 15,357.35 points, a slump of 770.63 points or 4.78 per cent. The broad-based The S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also ended six-month low at 4,623.60, a fall of 248.40 points, or 5.10 per cent, over its last close, with most of heavyweight stocks led by the banking sector losing hugely.

The total turnover amounted to Rs 5952 crore which is lower as compared to the previous day’s turnover of Rs 7,215.42 crore on BSE. Turnover on NSE’s futures & options segment amounted to Rs 44869.49 crore which is slightly higher as compared to Wednesday's turnover of Rs 44632.78 crore. Marketmen said the onslaught of selling gripped the market as soon it was opened and it was an across-the-board battering.

The barrage being so strong that all sectorial indices ended lower in the range of 2.0-11.6 per cent.