Indian equities markets took a sharp plunge Thursday and closed in the red with heavy selling in key sectors, spurred by the record price of crude oil, which touched $122 a barrel. The same trend was seen across other Asian markets too.

The markets that opened in the red tracking international cues, failed to recover. Important sectors like capital goods, banking, IT, oil and gas, and realty took a drubbing and all indices, barring metals, closed in the red..

The 30-share sensitive index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the Sensex, opened at 17,212.61 points and touched a low of 17,038.03 before closing at 17,080.65. It lost 258.66 points or 1.49 percent compared to its close Thursday.

The S and amp;P CNX Nifty index on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), which opened at 5,135.80 points, closed at 5,081.70 after touching the day's high at 5,143.05. At close, it registered a loss of 53.80 points or 1.05 percent.

The BSE Midcap index, which closed at 7,153.43 points, went down by 48.14 points or 0.67 percent. Similarly, the BSE Smallcap index, which closed at 8,689.04 points, went down 38.13 points or 0.44 percent. On BSE, the market breadth was low with poor trading volumes. A total of 1,102 shares advanced, 1,593 declined and 51 remained unchanged.

All other Asian markets also closed in the red Thursday.

The top gainers of the day here included Tata Steel at Rs.845.65 up 2.51 percent, Bharti Airtel at Rs.827.60 up 1.45 percent, ACC at Rs.743.25 up 0.82 percent and Ranbaxy Labs at Rs.470.05 up 0.90 percent. The top losers of the day included ITC at Rs.215.05 down 5.24 percent, Satyam at Rs.471.10 down 3.72 percent, Infosys at Rs.1,779.80 down 3.44 percent and Larsen and amp; Toubro at Rs.2,886.20 down 3.36 percent.

Subscribe to daily press alerts via email »