The United Progressive Alliance's much-touted Common Minimum Programme was given a resounding thumbs-down by the stock markets on Friday, with the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share sensitive index -- the Sensex -- crashed by 223 points (4.4%) to close at 4,835. The markets had closed at 5058 points on Thursday.

The NSE Nifty too shed 78 points to close at 1509. Its previous (Thursday's) close was 1586 points.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram's assertion that reforms will go on no matter what had little effect as the markets fell further after his statement.

The new Left-supported Congress-led government's proposed economy policy did not provide any cheer or support for the market to be enthused about. With the CMP reiterating that privatisation of profit-making public sector companies and banks would be off the agenda, investors panicked.

Most of the heavyweight stocks, especially banking scrips, were the biggest losers.

Apart from banking scrips, power, oil and public sector stocks declined heavily.

There was across-the-board selling in almost all stocks. Further panic was created by rumours that foreign institutional investors were in the sell mode, dumping their holdings aggressively. Having bought equities worth $4.3 billion in the first four months of 2004, FIIs have been the biggest sellers in the month of May.

Heavy sales by big funds on fears of whether the reforms process will go on or if it would be reversed have also led to the small investor scampering for safety by booking losses.

Disappointing results from the country's biggest bank, the State Bank of India, added to the woes. SBI slumped nearly 8% (Rs 46) to Rs 485

Reliance was down 4% (Rs 18) to close at Rs 431. ITC dropped 3.6% (Rs 33) to Rs 883. HLL shed 2.2% (Rs 3) to end at Rs 137.

Infosys slumped 4.6% (Rs 246) to Rs 5,057. Satyam was down nearly 5% (Rs 15) to Rs 305 while Wipro dropped 6.3% (Rs 102) to close at Rs 1,504.50.

ONGC and MTNL dropped nearly 7% each to Rs 649.50 and Rs 112, respectively. HPCL was down 3% (Rs 10) to Rs 313.50.

Ranbaxy was down 3% (Rs 29) at Rs 990. Cipla was down 2.5% (Rs 6) at Rs 240. Dr.Reddy's dropped 2% (Rs 17) to close at Rs 887.50.

Grasim plummeted 7% (Rs 77.50) to Rs 1,025. Gujarat Ambuja ended the day with a loss of nearly 3% (Rs 8) at Rs 288.

HDFC and HDFC Bank were down a percent each at Rs 569 and Rs 370, respectively. Hero Honda and Maruti were down 7% each at Rs 452 and Rs 405, respectively.

Bharti Tele-Ventures dropped 4% (Rs 6) to Rs 147.50. Reliance Energy slumped 7.5% (Rs 40) to Rs 498. ICICI Bank dropped 7% (Rs 18) to Rs 246.

Tata Power was down 7.24% (Rs 21.50) at Rs 275. Telco was down 6% (Rs 25) at Rs 387. Tisco dropped 5% (Rs 16) to end at Rs 303.

Hindalco and Zee were the only gainers among the Sensex stocks.

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