Sensex ends down 367pts; Ranbaxy soars 9%

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 379 points at 11,316 on the back of negative cues from the overseas markets amid rising fears of a significant slowdown in the global economy.

Yesterday, the Dow Jones and Nasdaq plunged over 500 points and 100 points, respectively. Among the Asian markets - Nikkei plummeted 9.4% to 9,203. Hang Seng tumbled over 8% to 15,432. The Straits Times, Seoul Composite and Taiwan Weighted indices were down around 6% each at 2,034, 1,287 and 5,206, respectively.

Back home, the index after a weak start slipped to lower levels and touched a low of 10,741 - down 575 points from the day's open - on resuming trade after the sun outage break. The index, however, staged a smart recovery from lower levels on the back of renewed buying interest in select beaten down stocks.

The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 367 points at 11,328. Today being the last day of sun outage, the index thus recorded a loss of 16.5% (2,242 points) during the period (from September 24, 2008 till today).

The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,652 stocks traded, 2,164 declined, 442 advanced and the rest were unchanged today

INDEX SHAKERS...

Jaiprakash Associates slumped almost 10% to Rs 91. Wipro plunged nearly 8% to Rs 282.

Sterlite and ICICI Bank tumbled over 6.5% each to Rs 293 and Rs 454, respectively.

SBI shed 6% at Rs 1,322. Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Satyam, ITC and TCS dropped over 5% each to Rs 338, Rs 300, Rs 265, Rs 166 and Rs 547, respectively.

Hindustan Unilever shed 4.5% at Rs 238. Hindalco, Larsen & Toubro and Infosys slipped around 4% each to Rs 91, Rs 967 and Rs 1,254, respectively.

HDFC and ACC dropped nearly 3.5% each to Rs 1,889 and Rs 571, respectively. ONGC declined nearly 3% to Rs 964.

Grasim was down 2.7% at Rs 1,575. Bharti Airtel, BHEL, HDFC Bank and Reliance Infrastructure were down around 2% each at Rs 733, Rs 1,467, Rs 1,106 and Rs 638, respectively.

...AND THE MOVERS

Ranbaxy soared 9% to Rs 279 on news that the US court has withdrawn motion against the company.

Tata Power surged 4.8% to Rs 805. Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti rallied 2.7% each to Rs 486 and Rs 689, respectively.

DLF gained 2% at Rs 309.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 434.75 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 287.25 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 252 crore), Jaiprakash Associates (Rs 209.60 crore) and SBI (Rs 152.25 crore).

Jaiprakash Associates led the volume chart with trades of around 2.24 crore shares followed by Reliane Natural Resources (1.26 crore), GVK Power (1.22 crore), Chambal Fertilisers (78.25 lakh) and IFCI (70.65 lakh).