After nosedive, crashed Sensex recovers by 1, 500 pts(Lead: Sensex)

After opening with a huge negative gap of 1, 014 points, the Bombay Stock Exchanges (BSE) 30-share Sensex recovered 1, 500 points, but closed 300 points below yesterdays mark.

Mumbai/New Delhi, Oct 17 : After opening with a huge negative gap of 1, 014 points, the Bombay Stock Exchange's (BSE) 30-share Sensex recovered 1, 500 points, but closed 300 points below yesterday's mark.

Following this major crash, trading was halted for an hour. This was the third such instance in the last three years.

Earlier in the day, Finance Minister P Chidmabaram remarks on investment in the stock markets via Participatory Notes (PN) gave the stock exchanges a momentum.

Chidambaram ruled out any ban on investment via PN and gave assurance that the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) proposal on PN's is to moderate investment coming in from abroad.

Welcoming investment via the PN route, Chidambaram said that he was surprised to see a certain section of the media raising an alarm over the performance of stock markets, adding, there was no need to raise an alarm, and that he expected the initial sense of alarm to "quieten" down by the end of the day.

He went on to say that the move is a culmination of measures discussed between the SEBI, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Central Government.

Meanwhile, SEBI Chairman M Damodaran has appealed investors not to get carried away by rumours, saying that the proposals on Offshore Derivative Instruments (ODIs) were a well-designed package.

"Investors should see what period they are investing and remain within their set horizon... not be swayed by rumours," he said.

The SEBI has proposed to tighten the rules for purchase of shares and bonds in Indian companies through the participatory note route. The draft guidelines say foreign institutional investors (FII) and their sub-accounts cannot issue or renew participatory notes with underlying as derivatives with immediate effect. They have to unwind their current position within 18 months.

The Sensex recovered sharply from the day's low (17,308 points) and touched an intra-day high of 18,841 points - up 1,533 points (8.9 per cent) from the day's low.

Reliance Energy slumped 7.5 per cent to Rs 1,762. ACC and SBI plunged five per cent each to Rs 1,203 and Rs 1,829, respectively.

BHEL and NTPC tumbled over 4.5 per cent each to Rs 2,283 and Rs 221, respectively.

Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Steel, HDFC and ONGC slipped around four per cent each to Rs 780, Rs 869, Rs 2,470 and Rs 1,130, respectively.

ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and HDFC Bank dropped three per cent each to Rs 1,121, Rs 1,076, Rs 737 and Rs 1,460, respectively.

Cipla, Ambuja Cements and Dr.Reddy's shed around 2.5 per cent each to Rs 179, Rs 149 and Rs 606, respectively.

Ranbaxy, Grasim, Bajaj Auto and Hindustan Unilever were down around two per cent each to Rs 420, Rs 3,675, Rs 2,489 and Rs 208, respectively.

TCS surged 2.5 per cent to Rs 1,095. Satyam advanced 1.6 per cent to Rs 457, and Infosys added a per cent to Rs 1,890.

Reliance moved up over 1.5 per cent to Rs 2,690.

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 988.50 crore followed by Reliance Energy (Rs 794.30 crore), Power Grid (Rs 607.50 crore), Tata Power (Rs 401.20 crore) and Reliance Petroleum (Rs 398.80 crore).

Power Grid led the volume chart with trades of around 4.77 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (3.68 crore), Reliance Petroleum (2.27 crore), Tata Teleservices (2.21 crore) and IFCI (1.22 crore).

ANI