Sensex plunges 390 points in pre-close trade

Having risen by around 5 per cent in the past five trading sessions, the 30 stock benchmark -- Sensex (^BSESN : 16632.01 -222.92) corrected by 390 points or 2.4 per cent to close at 15,514. This is the biggest in a month since the budget day (July 6) when Sensex fell by 869 points or 5.8 per cent.

The broader index Nifty (^NSEI : 4941.75 -63.8) corrected by 2.3 per cent to close at 4,585. Profit booking in the sectors that led the sensex gains over the past one week led to the fall. Stocks in auto and realty sector fell the most on Thursday as the two sectoral indices fell by 4.4 and 3.7 per cent respectively.

"The valuations had gone slightly higher and profit booking during the day led to the fall," said DD Sharma, vice president- equity, AnandRathi Securities. "The profit booking is expected to continue for some days that may lead to more correction."The biggest gainer fell the most. Tata Motors (TATAMOTORS.BO : 634.85 -8.85) that gained 58 per cent between July 6 and August 5 since the budget day gell by 6.9 per cent on Thursday as the profit booking prevailed.