Bloodbath on Dalal Street; Sensex tanks 855 pts on Greece woes

In its worst ever crash in over six years, benchmark Sensex on Tuesday tanked 855 points as stock markets globally went into a tailspin amid political turmoil in Greece and oil price cracking below $ 50-mark.

The NSE Nifty also tanked 251 points, or 3%, on massive selling across sectors. Oil & gas, realty, metal, capital goods were among the worst hit. Power, consumer durables, banking shares also witnessed sharp selling.

The 30-share BSE index resumed the day sharply lower in line with weak global cues and remained under selling pressure throughout the day. It fell below the 27,000-mark as it ended with a loss of 854.86 points, or 3.07%, at 26,987.46.

As stock markets crashed sharply, the marketplace was rife with speculation about a 'fat finger trade' in a future contract of benchmark Nifty even as NSE officials maintained that trading was normal.

Among the 30-share Sensex, ONGC was the biggest loser as it slumped nearly 6%. It was followed by Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel, HDFC, RIL, BHEL, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank
and SBI with 4-5% losses.

As many as 29 scrips in the bluechip index ended in the red with HUL being the lone gainer. Across the BSE, over 2,200 counters fell while less than 650 gained -- indicating the negative breadth of the market.

Globally, crude slumped to $49.95 a barrel, a level not seen since May 2009. Brent also fell by $3.31 to 53.50 per barrel.

"Markets globally remained weak. Speculation about probable exit of Greece from the Euro region and faltering oil prices too contributed towards grim market mood," said Bonanza Portfolio Senior Vice President Rakesh Goyal.

Fears mounted that an election in embattled Greece later this month could put the opposition anti-austerity party Syriza in power, jeopardizing the country's economic reforms mandated by the international financial rescue, analysts said.

In tandem with overall trends, the BSE small-cap and mid-cap indices lost 2.95% each respectively. Weak trend at the other Asian markets and lower opening
in Europe dampened trading sentiments here.

Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors bought shares worth net Rs. 472 crore yesterday, as per provisional data. (Hindustan Times)