Sensex down 232 points

The Sensex today shed 232 points to close below 15,000 mark. The downfall came amidst a global sell-off, as fears of a credit squeeze gripped world markets.

Mumbai, Aug 10 : The Sensex today shed 232 points to close below 15,000 mark. The downfall came amidst a global sell-off, as fears of a credit squeeze gripped world markets.

In early trade, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) tumbled nearly 530 points, but recovered partially during the day to close down by 231.90 points at 14,868.25.

At one point, the index hit a low of 14,570.89, it's lowest since June 29.

"This kind of fall comes from across the board. The stocks like even Reliance, some of the technology stocks, the big banking stocks and even engineering and construction stocks, there was heavy fall in the morning," Ashok Ajmera, a stock analyst said.

The benchmark fell 7.4 percent from a record 15,868.85 hit on July 24.

Among the stocks, banking scrips were hit heavily. The BSE banking index, BANKEX, was the biggest loser among sectoral indices. It shed 2.5 per cent or 202 points.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Union Bank, SBI, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Federal Bank, Bank of India and Allahabad Bank were the top draggers.

The losers at the Sensex were Bharti Airtel, Hindalco, Reliance Communication, NTPC, ONGC and HUL. They shed between 2.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent each.

In the broader markets, the Nifty tanked 1.6 per cent or 70 points to close at 4,333 levels.

ANI