By IANS
Mumbai : A key market index shed more than 1,000 points in afternoon trade Monday, a loss of almost 5 percent, led by Reliance Industries and in line with weak global markets and a poor debut by Reliance Power.
The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened at 17,427.34 points against the previous close of 17,464.89. At 1.40 p.m. it was trading at 16,598.79 points, down 4.96 percent, after hitting a low of 16,457.74 points.
The broader 50-share S&P CNX nifty index on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) has also shed over 5 percent. The Nifty was trading at 4872.10 points at 1.50 p.m., a decline of 4.85 percent against the previous close of 5120.35 points.
The BSE Mid-Cap and Small-Cap indices have also lost sharply at 7,181.62 and 9,374.88 points, down 5.92 and 5.50 percent, respectively.
At the BSE at 1.48 p.m. 10 stocks of the premier ‘A’ group of stocks declined and only 10 scrips were able to advance. No shares remained unchanged.
Among the sectoral indices at BSE, the heaviest losers were oil and gas, power, public sector units and realty.
Reliance Power Ltd (RPL), which last month made the largest ever initial public offer (IPO) in India, slid sharply by over 9 percent Monday afternoon despite listing at Rs.548 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), a premium of more than 20 percent over its offer price of Rs.450.
Asian markets were also trading lower. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 1.13 percent, South Korea’s Seoul Composite dropped 3.20 percent, Singapore’s Straits Times was down 1.10 percent.
Wall Street ended mixed with Dow falling 64 points and Nasdaq rising 11 points.