Sensex crashes by another 78 points

Brokers said Larsen was the only gainer from the Sensex basket while Mahindra & Mahindra, Novartis, ICICI, Nestle, Hindalco, BSES, Guj Ambuja, Glaxo, BHEL and Castrol turned out to be major losers following heavy selling pressure from local institutional investors. Stocks on which new margins were announced on Monday fared surprisingly well with dealers saying the additional charge was too small to make a difference. Of the 10 stocks burdened with a 5% margin, 5 closed higher.

Software shares were mixed with fund buying driving up select shares. Operators said Thursday’s performance will be dictated by the performance of Nasdaq. Market heavyweight Infosys Technologies ended lower at Rs 9,949.55 tracking the losses of its ADR on Tuesday. Wipro hit the upper end of the eight per cent circuit breaker limit again, closing at Rs 7,640.30.

HDFC Bank rose eight per cent to Rs 249.45 after a newspaper reported it is teaming up with its parent to pick up a stake in a net solutions company. Steel Authority of India Ltd also rose eight per cent, touching Rs 12.10. The broader market was weak with decliners beating advancers 1,035 to 819. Eighty-four shares touched new highs and 75 hit new lows.

TV-18 ZOOMS: Television Eighteen, a television software producer and broadcaster, led a surge by media companies on Wednesday with many stocks hitting the upper end of the circuit filter. TV 18 made an impressive debut at Rs 1,990, nearly 1,000 per cent higher than its offer price of Rs 180 per share. It closed at Rs 1,667 after touching a low of Rs 1,490. Sri Adhikari Brothers rose 7.99 per cent to Rs 1,727.95 before dropping to 1,720, Gramaphone Company moved up over 3% to end at 1,598 while animations firm Crest Communications ended 7.80% higher at Rs 953.20.

On the NSE, select equities staged moderate recovery on the first day of current weekly settlement. Reflecting the trend, the S&P CNX Nifty index opened firm at 1704.85 points before closing at 1711.10 points, showing a net gain of 8.55 points. Meanwhile, the SEBI has convened a meeting of stock exchanges and institutional investors to discuss the issue of bringing institutional investors under the purview of margins on Thursday.