By IANS
Mumbai : In sharp contrast to the morning session, Indian stock markets plummeted in the afternoon and a key index fell 287.70 points at close of trade. The index had scaled a new peak of 21,206.77 points in early trades.
The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange opened at 20,930.28 points, and touched an all-time high in morning trades.
The party was spoiled in the afternoon on the back of heavy selling across the board and Sensex closed at 20,582.08 points, with a sharp fall of 287.70 points or 1.38 percent over the previous day’s close.
The broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also followed the bandwagon. After opening at 6,278.10, Nifty marked a high of 6,347 before closing at 6,156.95 with a fall of 115.05 points.
In a sluggish market Reliance stocks continued the lead for the gain as well as for the fall.
The top five turnover toppers were Reliance Natural Resources, Reliance Petroleum, Reliance Energy, Reliance Communications and Reliance Capital.
Market breadth turned negative with 2 out of 30 Sensex stocks trading in the red. Overall market breadth turned sharply negative with only 365 counters advancing against 2,530 declining.
At NSE, ICICI Bank was the top gainer with a rise of 3.69 percent to close at Rs.1356.15, up by Rs.48.20 on the previous day’s close.
The top loser on NSE was Reliance Petroleum that marked fall of 6.10 percent to close at 265.85 with a loss of Rs.11.30 over the previous day’s close of Rs.277.15.