Markets have completely washed out all indices in an intraday trade though some recovery has happened in late trade, which seemed like value buying at lower levels. Weak global cues on the back of rising crude have worrisome effect on our markets as well. Sensex and Nifty again test 13000 and 3900 levels, respectively in today's session. Realty, metal, banking, power, telecom, auto and capital goods stocks slaughtered severely.

Markets sources say that intraday recovery was largely on back of short covering. However, political uncertainty is keeping investors wary of putting fresh money in the markets. Redemption led sell off by hedge funds continued. Selling pressure will continue in midcap and small cap stocks.

Dealers feel that redemption pressure in domestic funds could be the last leg of capitulation.

The Sensex has touched an intraday low of 12,934.92, down 729.7 points or 5.34% over its previous close. It was down 570.51 points or 4.18% at 13,094.11.

Nifty Fifty crashed 218.5 points or 5.34% while hitting an intraday low of 3874.85. It finished at 3925.75, down 167.6 points or 4.09%.

Technical analyst said Nifty support is at 3850 in near term and the worst is not over yet.

Reliance Industries, DLF, SAIL, Bharti Aitel, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Infosys, ITC and HDFC were top contributors in draggers' list.

Market breadth was weak; about 866 shares have advanced while 2033 shares declined. Nearly 237 shares remained unchanged on the BSE.

Crude August Futures hit an all-time high of $ 145.65 a barrel on the NYMEX and is inching up towards $146/bbl. Saudi Oil Minister says pessimism over world supply is one of the reasons for spike in crude oil prices.

Petroleum Secretary MS Srinivasan said demand for crude would increase by 5-7% in 2008-09, reports CNBC-TV18. "India FY09 crude import bill seen at USD 110-120 billion, as against USD 68 billion last year." According to Srinivasan, the country's fuel demand depends on pricing policy. India is still an attractive destination for global upstream companies.

Amongst frontliners, Tata Steel plunged 11.3%, Suzlon Energy -10.08%, DLF -9.93%, Unitech -9.74%, SAIL -9.51%, Reliance Infra -8.72%, ICICI Bank -7.89% and Reliance Communication -6.91%. However, SBI gained 2.07%, ABB 0.91%, ONGC 0.56% and BPCL 0.56%.

Metal was the hugely beaten down sector, crashed 1,125.47 points or 8.5% at 12,113.55. Guj NRE Coke, Tata Steel, SAIL, Jindal Steel, JSW Steel and Sterlite Ind slid 8-13.5%.

Realty Index has wiped out all its yesterday's gain, down 435.97 points or 9.21% at 4,295.22. Realty stocks like Sobha Developer, Unitech, DLF, HDIL, Anant Raj Ind, Omaxe, Indiabulls Real, Phoenix Mills and Akruti City fell 8-10%.

Power stocks like Suzlon Energy, Tata Power, Reliance Infra, GMR Infra, Neyveli Lignite, Lanco Infratech, GVK Power and NTPC plummeted 4-10%. Index was down 106.58 points or 4.67% to settle at 2,173.63.

Bankex lost 271.84 points or 4.59% at 5,647.79. Banking stocks like Kotak Mahindra, Karnataka Bank, Axis Bank, Yes Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Canara Bank, Allahabad Bank and HDFC Bank fell 3.5-11%.

Amongst telecom stocks, Tata Comm, Idea Cellular, Reliance Comm, Bharti Airtel, MTNL and Tata Teleservices plunged 3-8%.
 
FMCG Index was down by 80.54 points or 4.03% at 1,918.61 due to selling pressure in United Spirits, Dabur India, ITC, United Breweries and Godrej Consumer, which declined 4-6.6%.

Auto stocks like Bajaj Auto, Amtek Auto, Escorts, Tata Motors, Tube Investment, Maruti Suzuki, Exide Industries and Cummins skid 4-10%. Index tumbled 120.29 points or 3.44% at 3,377.76.

IT Index fell 139.13 points or 3.33% at 4,038.62 as selling pressure seen in HCL Tech, Mphasis, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Satyam and Wipro, which were down by 2-8%.

Capital goods stocks also plunged 2-8%, such as Punj Lloyd, Gammon India, Walchandnagar, Bharat Bijlee, Rel Ind Infra, Siemens, Alstom Projects, L&T and BHEL. Index dropped 310.86 points or 3.01% at 10,007.28.

In the Oil and gas space, Essar Oil fell 7.20%, RNRL -6.17%, Petronet LNG -5.17%, GAIL -4.12%, Reliance Ind -3.36% and Cairn India -1.70%. Index was down by 272.82 points or 2.97% at 8,922.47.

Healthcare Index slid 1.43% at 4,107.58 on the back of weakness in Opto Circuits, Glenmark, Wockhardt, Sun Pharma Adv, Matrix Labs and Divis Labs.

BSE Midcap Index closed at 5,161.76, down 149.54 points or 2.82%. Amongst midcap stocks, Guj NRE Coke, UB Holdings, Madhucon Projects, Prakash Ind, Simplex Infra, Tanla Solutions, Ashapura Mine, Adlabs Films and Sobha Developers plunged 10-13.5%

Small Cap Index fell 157.63 points or 2.42% at 6,349.17 as Lok Housing, Kirloskar Ferro, BAG Films, Sanghvi Movers, Ahmednagar Forg, Prajay Engineer, Ganesh Housing, Kolte-Patil, Sasken Comm and Sunil HitechEng tumbled 10-17%.

Turnover traded by the markets stood at Rs 70067.28 crore. This includes Rs 12824.57 crore from NSE Cash segment, Rs 51604.28 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 5638.43 crore from BSE Cash segment.

Asian markets were trading weak. Hang Seng declined 0.47%, Jakarta Composite -3.25%, Nikkei -0.22%, Straits Times -0.76%, Kospi -0.87% and Taiwan -0.5%.