Sensex dips 218 pts to 2-month low; RIL 2.27%

The benchmark Sensex today plunged by 218 points despite market leader RIL gaining over two per cent after the Supreme Court said the government has the final say on fixing the K-G gas price.
     
The BSE barometer closed at a two-month low of 16,769.11 points, down by 218.42 points, on growing fears that the ongoing European debt problems will upset the global economic recovery.
     
The Sensex extended losses for the second consecutive week, and declined 4.4 per cent or 789 points during the first week of May.

The 50-share Nifty Index of the National Stock Exchange closed 1.43 per cent down at 5,018.05 points.
    
Reliance Industries, which carries the maximum weight in the 30 blue-chip stocks, jumped 2.27 per cent to Rs 1,033.85, but the smart recovery in the scrip failed to lift the overall market as selling pressure was seen in all the sectors.

RIL, that had went down the Rs 1,000-level in early trade, recovered after the apex court began delivering verdict on the gas dispute between the company and RNRL.

On the other hand, Reliance Infra and RCom saw heavy selling pressure after the Supreme Court's verdict that rejected ADAG firm RNRL's plea for cheap gas from RIL on the basis of a family pact.
     
Reliance Infra plunged over 7 per cent, the most among the Sensex stocks, while RCom dropped 2.67 per cent. RNRL settled at Rs52.75, down by 22.82 per cent, while RPower sank 9% to Rs140.10.
     
"The movement in market was dominated by the verdict of the Supreme Court, coupled with weak global cues," Geojit BNP Paribas Research Head Alex Mathews said.

Among the 30-BSE components, 25 stocks closed with losses and four ended with gains, while ITC remained unchanged.
     
Tata Motors plunged 6.40 per cent, DLF by 4.41 per cent, SBI by 3.62 per cent and Sterlite by 3.46 per cent.
     
Financial stocks witnessed heavy selling pressure, with ICICI Bank falling 2.91 per cent, SBI by 3.62 per cent, HDFC Bank by 2.74 per cent and HDFC by 0.98 per cent. All the front line IT stocks fell in range of 1.5 per cent to 3.3 per cent.
     
Except BSE Oil & Gas index, all sectoral indices ended in the red falling up to 4 per cent.
     
On the global front, Asian market ended in the red and Europe also was trading in the negative in the mid-session on escalating concers that Greece's debt problems spill over to other weaker European countries.