Markets decline sharply in late trade

The market fell sharply as heavyweights faced selling pressure. Bharti Airtel, Reliance Energy and ICICI Bank slumped.The slide on the bourses today is attributed to the liquidity drain from the secondary market as the large IPO of Reliance Power opened for subscription today, 15 January 2008. The IPO will close on 18 January 2008.

Sensex closed down 476.96 points or 2.30% at 20251.09, and the Nifty down 132.55 points or 2.14% at 6074.25.

eliance Industries fell 1.69% to Rs 3126. The company on Monday, 14 January 2008, announced yet another gas discovery in block KG OSN-2001/1 in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin on the east coast of India.

India’s largest private sector bank by assets ICICI Bank fell 4.14% to Rs 1350.13.India’s largest engineering & construction firm by revenue Larsen & Toubro fell 2.44% to Rs 4065.

Reliance Energy slumped 5.78% to Rs 2331, Bharti Airtel slipped 5.62% to Rs 856.30, NTPC fell 4.54% to Rs 272, Reliance Communications declined 3.87% to Rs 774 and ITC gave away 3.36% to Rs 216.95.

Maruti Suzuki rose 1.53% to Rs 868, Tata Steel moved up 1.32% to Rs 850, Tata Motors 0.39% to Rs 768 and HDFC Bank climbed 0.11% to Rs 1789.90.