Tumbling for the second straight day on Wednesday, the benchmark Sensex closed below 9,000-level, its lowest level since December 5, on a spate of weak cues such as sharp fall in global bourses and disappointing third quartet earnings by HDFC and Wipro.
Selling pressure sparked by weak global cues got intensified after after Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia ruled out the possibility of any more stimulus package to boost economic growth in 2008-09.
The 30-share BSE barometer closed the day at 8,779.17, down by 321.38 points or 3.53 percent, with blue-chips in metal, power and banking counters suffering heavy losses.
The broader 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also dropped by 90.45 points or 3.23 percent to close at 2,706.15 from its last close.
The BSE barometer dipped below 9,000 level in the opening trade taking cues from the Wall Street where the Dow Industrial Average declined more than four percent overnight.
Marketmen said the financial health of banks in the West with more "toxix" assets than deposits remained a big worry for investors who anticipate the global economic downturn to protract.
The immediate trigger for big looses in the Wall Street yesterday was Royal Bank's Scotland's estimate of over USD 40 billion losses for 2008, which came as a shock to the banking sentiment which was already battered by Citigroup's and Bank of America whopping losses for fourth quarter.
The sentiment was further dampened by disappointing third quarter results by housing finance major HDFC and Wipro.
HDFC fell by 7.49 percent after the company reported a 15.73 percent decline in PAT for the third quarter. India's third largest software exporter Wipro was down 3.5 percent as the company's third quarter results announced early this morning failed to satisfy investors.
Marketmen said a fall in heavyweight Reliance Industries on fears of a fall in quarterly profits shattered the sentiment to some extent in last one-hour of trading.
The country's largest private sector firm was down 5.33 percent ahead of the company's announcement of financial results tomorrow.
Sterlite Ind at 7.97 percent was the biggest loser. Tata Power at 7.32 percent) at ICICI Bank at 7.12 percent were the other big losers. Grasim, Reliance Infra and Bharti Airtel also declined by over five percent each.
However, the FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever gained 3.39 percent on consistent value buying.
Among the sectoral indices, barring FMCG index which landed in positive terrain at close, all other sectorial indices ended lower by an average of 1.34 percent to 4.07 percent. Metal at 4.07 percent, power at 3.91 percent and banking at 3. 91 percent were the prominent losers.
The market breadth was extremely negative with 1,669 stocks showing losses against 720 gainers on the BSE.
