Sensex tanks 256 pts, sinks to lowest level in two months

After taking a day's breather in special trading session on Wednesday, the benchmark BSE Sensex today slipped by 256.42 points to a two-month low of 25,610.53 on bearish macroeconomic data even as muted global cues continued to rile domestic investors. This was the sixth fall in last seven sessions.

There were fresh worries over global growth after commodity prices tumbled to multi-year lows, triggering heavy selling in Asian and European markets.

The biggest spoiler for the domestic market, however, was macroeconomic data, which showed that Indian economy is still not out of the woods. Industrial production slackened to a four-month low of 3.6 per cent while retail inflation inched up to 5 per cent, government data showed yesterday.

Consequently, the BSE Sensex stayed in the negative zone through out the day and touched a low of 25,540.73 before winding up 256.42 points or 0.99 per cent down at 25,610.53, its weakest closing since September 11. From the 30-share Sensex pack, 22 ended lower.

On Wednesday, the index had risen by 123.69 points in a brief special Muhurat trading session on the opening day of the Hindu year Samvat 2072.

The 50-issue NSE Nifty cracked below the 7,800-mark by plunging 62.75 points or 0.80 per cent to close at 7,762.25. Intra-day, it hovered between 7,730.90 and 7,775.10.

Stock exchanges were closed yesterday on account of "Diwali Balipratipada". For the week, the Sensex lost 654.71 points or 2.49 per cent and the NSE Nifty dropped 192.05 points or 2.41 per cent -- their third weekly fall in a row.

In individual stocks, Vedanta suffered the most on Sensex by falling 4.23 per cent followed by Cipla at 3.76 per cent.

Other major losers included Hindalco, Bajaj Auto, ONGC, TCS, L&T, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, ITC, BHEL, Hero MotoCorp, HUL, Lupin, SBI, M&M, Wipro and ICICI Bank.

On the other side of spectrum, shares of Coal India emerged top gainers among Sensex constituents by climbing 2.60 per cent, followed by Bharti Airtel 0.89 per cent.

Sectorwise, BSE capital goods index fell the most by losing 1.97 per cent, followed by auto (1.61 pc), FMCG (1.50 pc), teck (1.36 pc), IT (1.32 pc), realty (1.31 pc), infra (1.18 pc) and healthcare (0.94 pc). In step with overall trend, mid-cap index fell 1.37 per cent, while small-cap shed 0.76 per cent.