Stock prices crash on Nasdaq downslide

MUMBAI, APRIL 13. Nervousness gripped the Bombay Stock Exchange today, as share prices virtually collapsed on a fresh wave of all-round selling induced by the Nasdaq debacle on Wednesday and partly by Reliance Industries' buyback decision.

The BSE Sensex plunged by 254.69 points or 4.69 per cent to close at 5172.13, the seventh biggest drop in the history of BSE and third in the current calendar year.

The persistent downslide in the Nasdaq composite index which crashed by over 675 points in the last three days, including the overnight hefty fall of 286.72 reflected in the local bourse with bears hammering stocks of all values.

Disappointed by Reliance's decision to fix its buyback price low at Rs. 303 per share yesterday, operators off-loaded their outstanding positions on the last day of the current settlement on the BSE.

The market resumed distinctly weak with the BSE sensitive index logging a opening quote of 5130.18, a whopping 296 points decline from the overnight closing level of 5426.82 and later moved in the range of 5205.69 and 5106.23. The BSE-100 index also dipped by 145.56 points to 2820.24.

The steep fall in the Sensex was mainly attributed to a sharp decline in the index-heavyweighted shares.

However, NIIT and Aptech bucked the general trend and gained handsomely on foreign institutional investors' buying support.

``The short term oscillators were in the overbought zone and some correction, which apparently has set in, is good for the general health of the market", a leading broker said.

In the initial hours of trading on Wall Street on Thursday, the Nasdaq composite index was up 36 points, having recovered from an opening loss of more than 50 points.

- PTI

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Section  : Business
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