Sensex snapshot

Across-the-board selling on Dalal Street shaved off nearly 400 points from the BSE sensex . Real estate stocks led the fall after RBI indicated there were signs of an unwarranted price rise in the sector and decided to rein in banks’ exposure to the commercial real estate sector by hiking risk weight for loans to this segment. Metal and banking stocks also witnessed strong profit taking as foreign funds continued to sell. The sensex opened the day weak on the back of a 100-plus points fall in the Dow Jones Index on Monday night. But the selling started after RBI’s policies were made public at 11.15 am, which indicated the central bank was slowly on track to exit the easy money policy that it had embarked on about a year ago, including tightening of money flow to the real estate sector, dealers said. At close, the sensex was down 387 points at 16,353, a six-week closing low. Since the Diwali-day high, the index is now down 1,100 points. Investors were left poorer by Rs 1.5 lakh crore with BSE’s market capitalisation now at Rs 54.9 lakh crore. Among the real estate majors, DLF lost 6.6% to Rs 402, Unitech was down 7.7% to Rs 86, while HDIL shed 8.7% to Rs 340. The panic selling in real estate stocks led BSE’s Realty Index ending 6.2% off. FIIs continued to sell with the day’s net outflow at Rs 549 crore. Domestic funds, however, were net buyers at Rs 142 crore. In the last five sessions, on a net basis, FIIs have taken out nearly Rs 2,050 crore from the market. With the dollar appreciating against most major currencies, institutional dealers said.