The trading commenced today on extremely poor sentiment and there was free fall in prices on account of weak cues across the international markets. The BSE Sensex of 30 major companies opened at 16,884, but declined sharply to 15,576 immediately as against the yesterday's close of 17,605. However, the fall in pharma shares was not as sharp as seen in the other sectors.

As a precautionary measure, the Bombay Stock Exchange stopped the trading for one hour, only fourth time in Indian stock market history. However, the markets have recovered after commencing the trading and BSE Sensex reached at 17,068 points. With lack of investors support the market indices declined further and the trend is likely to continue in the next few hours.

In the first hours of trading, Sensex moved down by 2029 points with all other sectors indices also remained under pressure. The important sectors like Banking, Consumer Goods, Metal, Oil & Gas, Realty, Power were at the receiving end. The BSE Health Care index of 25 companies declined by 232 points and closed to 3,469 points when the trading was halted as against previous close of 3,701.62.

Ranbaxy scrip moved down by Rs 18.20 Rs 345 in the first hour of morning trading session. Cipla declined by Rs 15.40 to Rs 175, DRL by Rs 21.60 to Rs 602, Lupin by Rs 37.15 to Rs 500, Sun by Rs 82.95 to Rs 980 and Nicholas Piramal price declined sharply by over 10 per cent to Rs 270. However, the fall in pharma shares was not as sharp as seen in the other sectors.