The housing finance racket continued to rattle investor confidence, pulling down the BSE benchmark Sensex today by another 182 points in a volatile trade.
The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark, which broke the 19,000 level in the intraday fall of over 360 points, recovered partially to end with a loss of 181.55 to 19,136.61.
In the previous three sessions, the Sensex had already lost 640 points. Overall, it has lost by 2.29 per cent this week.
Similarly, the broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty dipped below 5,700 level before settling with a loss of 47.80 points at 5,751.95 as bribery loan scam battered the shares of banking, construction and property developers.
The CBI had arrested CEO of LIC Housing and a few other officials of PSU banks on Wednesday.
The market was jolted further, following reports that some more companies are on market regulator SEBI’s radar, raising fears that the scam could deepen.
Besides, the Asian region was down and Europe opened weak, leading key foreign funds to adopt a wait-and-watch policy.
Hindustan Construction, whose hill-city township unit Lavasa was mentioned in the initial CBI report on the bribery case, tumbled more than 18.99 per cent to Rs 40.10, its lowest since 2009.
Money Matters Finance, a crucial name in the probe continued to hit the daily lower limit by falling 10 per cent to Rs 382.55, and second in row -- LIC Housing dropped 11.91 per cent to Rs 932.10.
Marketmen said most of the companies named in the bribery case were related to infrastructure and real estate, pulling the real estate sector index by 4.68 per cent to 2,742.81.
Infrastructure firm Jaiprakash Associates led the losses as it tumbled 8.04 per cent to Rs 105.75, its lowest in nearly 15 months,
The banking sector index suffered a loss of 0.03 per cent to 13,283.10 as the scandal in the banking sector tarnished the image, coming on the heels of a telecoms scandal and also following the corruption-riddled Commonwealth Games.
A higher closing in six 30-BSE index components like Cipla, ICICI Bank, ONGC, SBI, Tata Power and Tata Consultancy Services mainly capped the losses.
As the selling pressure gathered momentum, smallcap sector index dropped by 4.49 per cent to 9,515.93 and midcap index by 3.06 per cent to 7,612.49.
