Sensex tumbles 365 pts on IIP data, Greece woes

The BSE benchmark Sensex on Monday plungedover 365 points on heavy selling triggered by a steep fall in domesticindustrial growth and weak trend in global markets on renewed concerns ofeuro-zone debt crisis.

The BSE 30-share barometer dropped 365.23 points, or 2.17per cent to 16,501.74, with all sectoral indices falling by up to 3.43 percent. It touched the day's low of 16,393.04.

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The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty droppedbelow the 5,000 level, losing 112.65 or 2.23 per cent to 4,946.80. Intra-day itdipped to 4,911.25.

Trading sentiment turned bearish as the country's industrialgrowth fell to a meagre 3.3 per cent in July as against 9.9 per cent in thesame month last year.

Asian markets also slumped on renewed concerns that Greece would default on its debt repayments amida warning from Germany,on top of ongoing debt crisis in other euro-zone nations. Big losses in Europeand the UShave fuelled the selling pressure among foreign investors, brokers said.

Barring three - Cipla, Sun Pharma and Hindustan Unilever -all the Sensex components ended with losses. Major losers were Tata Motors,Reliance Industries, Infosys, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, BHEL, ICICI Bank, SBI,Larsen and Toubro, Tata Steel, TCS and Wipro.

Besides industrial stocks, the banking sector was underpressure on fears of more hike in interest rate by the Reserve Bank in itspolicy review on September 16 to tame rising inflation. The bank has increasedrates 11 times since March, 2010, making loans costly for industry as well asconsumers.

Steelmakers declined for the second straight session onforecast that demand this fiscal may grow at a slower pace.

Industrial growth fell to a meagre 3.3 per cent in July, against 9.9 per cent in the same month last year which affected negatively the trading sentiments.