Sensex plunges 900 points; banking, realty stocks worst hit

The BSE benchmark Sensex plunged by 900 points on Monday due to heavy selling by funds triggered by weak global trend. Banking, capital goods, realty and energy stocks dragged the markets today.
The 30-share index tumbled 5.12 per cent or 900.84 points to 16,677.88. The number of scrips that declined was higher at 26, and the advancing ones were only 4.
The Sensex fell after the Budget proposes to increase the short-term capital gains tax to 15 per cent.
Among sectoral indices, worst performers were Bankex, Realty, Capital Goods and Power indices. Bankex index has lost 6.72 per cent or 679.29 points to 9,434.44, Power index was down 6.35 per cent or 233.19 to 3,437.75, Realty index was down 5.71 per cent at 7,999.93 and Capital goods declined 5.80 per cent or 936.89 points to 15,182.63.
Similarly, the S&P CNX Nifty on the NSE lost 270.50 points to 4,953.00 as most of the index related heavyweight stocks lost notable grounds.
The advance-decline ratio on the Nifty was 1:9 depicting the current weakness.
Weak global trend mainly pulled down the share prices in early trading. Hong Kong share prices opened down 3.5 per cent today over worries of inflation and slowing down of domestic growth as well as concerns about the recession in the US economy.