The 30-share Sensex on Friday slumped below the crucial 19,000-level in intra-day trading as the housing loan scam continued to hammer realty stocks, closing with a loss of about 182 points, although it regained the psychological mark.
Sensex started the day on a firm note but soon lost ground in a highly choppy trade, and finally settled at 19,136.61, shedding 181.55 points or 0.94% from previous close.
Continuing its fall for the fourth consecutive session, the barometer had tumbled by 363.34 points to 18,954.82 during the trade - the level last seen on September 13.
Crisis in Ireland and South Korea, interest rate hike in China, and a string of scams including 2G spectrum row and housing loan racket, has seen the Sensex plummet by 896 points or 4.47% so far in November.
In a similar fashion, the National Stock Exchange's (NSE) broad based Nifty also tanked by 47.80 points to finish at 5,751.95.
Marketmen said that the continuous fall is an over-reaction to the negative news and also called it a buying opportunity for the investors.
"Sensex is on a falling spree due to the hammering in the blue chips including realty and banking shares in the wake of the ongoing investigations in the housing loan scam, which is just an over-reaction and market is bound to bounce back as the fundamentals are strong," CNI Research CMD Kishore P Ostwal said.
{{/usCountry}}"Sensex is on a falling spree due to the hammering in the blue chips including realty and banking shares in the wake of the ongoing investigations in the housing loan scam, which is just an over-reaction and market is bound to bounce back as the fundamentals are strong," CNI Research CMD Kishore P Ostwal said.
{{/usCountry}}Realty stocks were beaten yet again with Jai Prakash Associates settling at Rs 105.75 with a loss of 8.04%. The counter emerged as the worst performer among the 30 Sensex scrips. Another realty giant DLF too witnessed a plunge of 1.71% to close at Rs 287.75.
Besides, continuing weakness in the heavy weights including Reliance Industries and ITC also triggered the fall in the Sensex. While the former saw a dip of 1.81%, the latter slipped by 1.41% on BSE.
However, the banking stocks rebound today, giving support to the market, with the country' largest lender SBI and the private sector giant ICICI Bank surging 1.16% and 0.68% respectively.
"Buying at lower levels gave strength to the banking blue chips," said an expert.
All the 13 sectoral indices ended the day in the negative terrain with IT and banking sectors losing marginally.
Among the IT stocks, the bellwether Infosys Technologies and the software major Wipro lost 0.76% and 0.55% respectively, while TCS was the best performer with a gain of 2.14%.
Of the 30 Sensex components, 24 ended the day on a weak note, while rest including Cipla (1.16%) and Tata Power(1.15%) ended with gains.