Sensex plunges, ADAG hard hit
Feb. 18: The substantial fall in the last hour of trade broke the five day winning streak of the Sensex which closed down 295.30 points at 18,211.52 on profit booking and hardly any fresh buying.
The shares of the Anil Ambani group were hammered and Mr Ambani made yet another appeal to the government for a probe by the Intelligence Bureau into the hammering of the 23 infrastructure stocks.
This time he said it was by a “powerful stock market operator.” He had earlier given Sebi the names of a cartel of brokers who were hammering the infrastructure stocks and Sebi was said to be probing the crash of the market since November 5. The group’s flagship firm Reliance Communications was down 6.8 per cent, Reliance Infra by 5.60 per cent, Reliance Capital 6.98 per cent and Reliance Power 5.79 per cent.
Operators offloaded ADAG stocks and stocks across the board as the CBI has widened its probe in the 2G scam and there were reports that the CBI could call Mr Ambani again for more information after the three-hour quizzing in Delhi earlier this week.
The news that Swan Telecom boss Shahid Balwa was remanded to a further 14-day custody and sent to Tihar jail unnerved the market as there were rumours that more big corporates would be called by the CBI in the coming days.
The Nifty was back below 5,500 and closed at 5,458.95 down 87.50 points. Technical analyst, Mr Pradip Hotchandani of Anagram Securities said unless the Nifty closes above 5556 the earlier high, it will not negate the lower bottom and the Nifty will remain bearish. The rally we saw was just a pull back and waited a little longer than the January rally, which was shallow. 5,320 is the next support level for the Nifty and if it closes lower than that, it would go to the 5,177 level.
The broader markets also plunged into the red with 1,075 stocks ending in the red on the National Stock Exchange and just 236 closing in the green.
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