Selling spree sends BSE Sensex on downhill slide

Global stocks fell on news of Dubai asking for a creditor standstill at Dubai World and Vietnam’s currency devaluation, increased investors’ aversion to risk.  Selling pressure was conspicuous in banking, IT and oil & gas stocks, while Sensex heavyweight RIL turned ex-bonus this day. It had announced a liberal 1:1 bonus. The market breadth was weak with small and mid-cap stocks under selling pressure.

The Sensex fell below the psychological 17,000 level and the S&P CNX Nifty fell below the psychological 5,000 mark before regaining that level at the fag end of the trading session. All the sectoral indices ended lower. The Sensex at BSE lost 344.02 points or 2 per cent to close at 16,854.93.  The S&P CNX Nifty was down 102.60 points or 2.01% to settle at 5,005.55 points.  

Nifty December 2009 futures were at 4,980.55, at a discount of 25 points as compared to the spot closing.   Turnover in NSE’s futures & options (F&O) segment spurted to Rs 1,37,130.38 crore from Rs 91,235.90 crore on Wednesday, which is a record turnover on F&O segment. The total turnover on BSE cash segment amounted to Rs 4487 crore, lower than Rs 4,872.39 crore on November 25, 2009.

The broader indices like BSE Mid-Cap index and BSE Small-cap index fell 1.45 per cent and 0.98 per cent respectively, all the same both the indices outperformed the Sensex.