By IANS,
Mumbai : The Indian equity markets, which started Monday with a huge loss due to a new high in international crude oil price and weak cues from global markets, were trading with a loss of more than 580 points early afternoon.
Realty, banking, oil and gas, power and capital goods stocks led the sell-off. All the sectoral indices were in the red, as were all the 30 blue chip stocks in the Sensex pack. The market breadth was extremely weak.
The Sensex, the benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), fell below the psychologically important 15,000 mark for the first time since March 19. At 12.10 p.m., it was down 584.89 points or 3.76 percent at 14,987.29. It had hit the day’s low at 14,846.18 during mid-morning trade, when the Sensex was 726 points down.
Similarly, the broader based S&P CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange was down 169.65 points or 3.67 percent at 4,458.15. It hit a new low of 4,411.60 earlier Monday, and fell below this year’s earlier low of 4,448.50 in January.
Top losers included JP Associates, HDFC, DLF, Unitech and BPCL.