As many as 132 companies declined to their all-time low levels in the morning trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange today as weak global cues dragged the benchmark Sensex down by over 300 points.
Among the companies that witnessed all-time lows were telecom PSU MTNL (down 4.84 per cent to Rs 34.35), Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Communications (down 4.15 per cent to Rs 72.65), telecom equipment manufacturer GTL Infra (down 3.8 per cent to Rs 10.61) and Network 18 group firm TV18 Broadcast (down 10.90 per cent to Rs 42.50).
In addition, ADAG company Reliance Power was down 2.86 per cent to Rs 81.40 and Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Energy was down 4.02 per cent to Rs 51.28.
The other major losers include telecommunications value-added services provider Onmobile Global, which fell 9.13 per cent to a 52-week low of Rs 55.70, KSK Energy (down 1.9 per cent to Rs 98.05), real estate firm DB Realty (down 3.36 per cent to Rs 64.55), state-run manganese ore producer MOIL (down 2.65 per cent to Rs 297.30) and state-run lender Punjab & Sind Bank (down 4.8 per cent to Rs 77).
Only seven companies, including Essar India, defied the broader market trend and soared to all-time high levels on the BSE.
The advances to declines ratio was huge, as only 552 scrips were advancing, while as many as 2,042 stocks were on a declining trend.
Marketmen said the reason behind so many firms seeing all-time lows was the ripple effect of deepening worries of a global economic slowdown, which dragged the benchmark Sensex down.
The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex fell 351.37 points in the opening trade to 16,118.42 today, while the National Stock Exchange’s 50-share Nifty index slipped below the 4,900-point mark with a fall of over 100 points.
Heavy selling was witnessed in IT and banking stocks, with blue-chips like Infosys, ICICI Bank, TCS and HDFC Bank falling sharply.
Meanwhile, Asian stock markets also plummeted nearly 4 per cent in intra-day trade today following overnight losses in the US market on weak economic data for the American economy and renewed concerns about the euro zone debt crisis.