The market opened sharply lower on weak global cues. Rebound in crude oil prices from a seven-week low also weighed on the sentiments. Blue chips from the banking, oil & gas and realty sector witnessed major selling pressure. IT stocks bucked the weak trend.

US oil futures rose $1.05 to settle at $125.49 a barrel on Thursday, 24 July 2008, after a drop of more than 5% over the previous two sessions. Earlier during Thursday's NYMEX session, oil hit an intraday high above $126.

US stocks declined sharply on Thursday, 24 July 2008, after a report showing yet another drop in US home sales prompted investors to take profits in financial shares, which had rallied over the past week. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 283.10 points, or 2.43%, to close at 11,349.28. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 29.65 points, or 2.31%, to 1,252.54, while the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 45.77 points, or 1.97%, to 2,280.11.

Asian stocks were in the red today, 25 July 2008. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, China and Singapore were down by between 1.07% to 2.37%.

India's inflation based on the wholesale price index rose 11.89% in 12 months to 12 July 2008, a tad lower than previous week's annual rise of 11.91%, government data released after trading hours on Thursday, 24 July 2008, showed.

At 10:20 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was down 357.28 points or 2.42% at 14419.43. The index lost 446.40 points at the days low of 14,330.17, hit in early trade.

The broader based S&P; CNX Nifty slipped 71.40 points or 1.61% at 4362.15.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was down 1.13% to 5,517.85 and the BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.52% to 6,760.93.

The market breadth was weak on BSE with 473 shares advancing as compared to 979 that declined. 41 remained unchanged.

Indias largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries slipped 4.84% to Rs 2194.80. Strong refining margins helped Reliance Industries (RIL) post 13.2% growth in net profit to Rs 4,110 crore on 41% growth in turnover to Rs 41,805 crore in Q1 June 2008 over Q1 June 2007. Nearly 95% of the increase in turnover was due to increase in prices, with volume increases accounting for the rest, said a press release from the company.

Indias largest private sector bank by assets ICICI Bank slumped 7.09% to Rs 674.

Other major Sensex losers were, HDFC Bank (down 5.12% at Rs 1152), Housing Development Finance Corporation (down 4.32% at Rs 2253), Bharat Heavy Electricals (down 3.24% at Rs 1668.10), Jaiprakash Associates (down 3.13% at Rs 165.80), and Larsen & Toubro (down 2.99% at Rs 2632).

Top Sensex gainers were, Hindalco Industries (up 1.72% at Rs 154.20), Cipla (up 0.88% at Rs 233.80), and Hindustan Unilever (up 0.50% at Rs 229).

IT stocks rose. Wipro (up 1.89% at Rs 415.10), Satyam Computer (up 1.58% at Rs 375.10), and TCS (up 1.15% at Rs 814), rose.

However, India's second largest software exporter by sales Infosys Techologies fell 0.49% to Rs 1557.10.

As per provisional data released by the stock exchanges, foreign funds on Thursday, 24 July 2008, bought shares worth a net Rs 272.36 crore. Foreign funds bought shares worth a net Rs 1635.60 crore on Wednesday, 23 July 2008, data released by the market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) after trading hours on Thursday, 24 July 2008, showed.

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