Sensex sheds another 386 pts

MUMBAI: The bourses extended their losses to second consecutive day, pulling down the bellwether Sensex below 10k on Thursday in sync with slipping global markets amid heightened worries about a global recession, coupled with domestic inflation rate rising marginally.
    
Market participants said concerns over a slowdown took the centre-stage in global markets after Wednesday's dismal US economic data.
    
In an otherwise choppy trade, the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer settled the day at 9,734.22, a net fall of 385.79 points or 3.81 per cent from its previous close.
    
The broader 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also dived by 102.30 points or 3.42 per cent to close at 2,892.65 from its last close.
    
In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi ended down 7.56 per cent, Hang Seng 7.08 per cent, Nikkei 6.53 per cent, Taiwan's index 5.71 per cent and Shanghai Composite 2.44 per cent.
    
European markets were sharply lower by about 3.0 to 3.5 per cent in their early trade.
    
They said bears began to tighten their grip on the market as inflation rose to 10.72 per cent for the week ended October 25 and the credit flow remained tight despite a slew of measures by the government and financial market regulator.
    
Metal sector was the day's worst hit segment with the BSE metal index falling by 8.41 per cent after world's largest steel maker ArcelorMittal reported poor earnings outlook for the fourth quarter.
    
Also, RIL's denial on the closure of its five polyester and petrochemical plants failed to prevent further slide in its stocks, which tumbled by 7.7 per cent, in addition to Wednesday's 12.76 per cent fall.
    
According to analysts, the market is dependent on the overseas positive news and might consolidate in the current range before making any move either side.
    
Key metal stocks such as Tata Steel fell by 13.67 per cent, Sterlite by 11.33 per cent, JSWSL by 10.80 per cent, Hindalco by 7.50 per cent and Jindal Steel by 6.02 per cent.
    
Major losers from the Sensex pack were Tata Motors (12.17 per cent), Bharti Airtel (6.62 per cent), Wipro (6.31 per cent), Infosys Tech (5.50 per cent), HDFC (5.38 per cent), Rel Comm (4.63 per cent) and SBI (4.58 per cent).
    
The gainers included Jaiprakash Associates 4.10 per cent, Ranbaxy Lab 3.72 per cent, HUL 3.05 per cent and DLF 2.46 per cent.
    
The market breadth remained extremely negative with 1,624 losers against 877 gainers on the BSE.
    
The trading volume stood at Rs 4,010.92 crore. RIL was the top traded scrip with the highest turnover of Rs 391.47 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 202.92 crore), SBI (Rs 173.15 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 165.32 crore) and the newly listed Alkali Metals (Rs 161.38 crore).
    
The broad-based BSE-100 Index tumbled further by 179.44 points or 3.48 per cent to 4,982.04 from its previous close.
    
The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 were quoted lower at 1,157.29 and 405.29 at close compared to their last close of 1,196.66 and 421.38 respectively.