Sensex crashes a whopping 330 pts; ends at 25-wk low Friday, May 14 2004 18:02 Hrs (IST)
Mumbai:
Left parties' demand for scrapping of disinvestment policy before the formation of Government at the Centre played havoc on the bourses, wiping out a market cap of over Rs 1,00,000 crore and the Sensex tumbled by a huge 330 points to end at 25-week low at 5,069.87 on across-the-board sell-off by investors.
The market also witnessed the biggest intra-day fall in four years as Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) battered public sector undertaking (PSU) and banking stocks in a knee-jerk reaction after the CPM and CPI made it clear that disinvestment policies should be scrapped.
The market's intra-day swing of 372.05 points is the fifth largest in history of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) history. The previous record was on May 2, 2000 when the market gyrated in range of 393.17 points.
The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened on a promising note at 5,409.34 and moved up to the day's high of 5,416.04. However, the heavy sell-off sent the Sensex hurtling down to end at 5,069.87 as against yesterday's close of 5,399.47, a net fall of 6.10 per cent or 329.60 points, the fourth largest fall in the history.
PSU and banking stocks were the worst hit as, FIIs pressed aggressive sales in the sectors following the Left parties' anti-privatisation stand for participating in the new Government at the Centre.
The Lok Sabha elections beginning from the day one when the first phase was held on April 20, have continued to take its toll on investors' wealth. Today's mayhem in bourses led to another sharp erosion in the overall market capitalisation to the extent of Rs 1,02,108 crore.