Though market players were anticipating a correction for long, Friday's trading witnessed panic selling. The news that martial law has been declared in Pakistan and the FM addimiting that the an internal debt trap is looming large over us were the main trigger points for the market players to start selling.

Soon after opening at 5090.19, the Sensex touched the day's high at 5095.26 and then began sliding. During the end of the session, it touched a low of 4866.85, in the process breaking all its short-term support levels. In the end, the Sensex showed a net fall of 191.37 points and closed at 4884.02 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty on the other hand opened at 1505.70 and soon touched the day's high of 1512.00. But soon all round selling took its toll and the index went down to the day's low of 1448.95 but closed a shade higher at 1454.55 points.

According to market players, a big correction was long due. "A reaction of this magnitude was pending for sometime. In spite of unfavourable factors -- huge outstandings, fluid situation in Pakistan, weakness in the international markets -- the Sensex was able to hold on to the 5000-plus level," said Ketan Desai at Asit C Mehta Investment Intermediaries.

According to brokers, it all started with ITC and Zee Tele opening weak and soon the IT stocks also joined in the downslide. Reliance, which was holding strong during the opening hours, could not resist much of its ground later in the afternoon. However, fall in Infosys and HLL was not much. Had these two counter participated in the fall, the drop in Sensex would have been more. According to Ambareesh Baliga at Kotak Securities, "It was the small operators who panicked during the initial weaknesses and went out of the counters where they had made good profits over the last few days. This had a spiralling effect on the market during the later part of the day."

Unlike on other Fridays, the option of shifting positions to the NSE on Friday was also not really profitable. "Friday being the last day of the current account on the BSE, and the penultimate day of the NSE, operators unwound their positions and there was near complete absence of either burgain hunting or delivery-based buying," said Desai. "And unlike on other Fridays, today the pivotals were trading almost at identical levels on both the exchanges," pointed out VVLN Shastry at Khandwala Securities.

According to Alok Churiwala at Churiwala Securities, FII selling also one of the major factors for the markets' slide on Friday. According to Desai it was not only a stable government that they (FIIs) were waiting for, "They also expect the huge outstanding positions to go down."

Almost all the pivotals showed drastic fall compared to previous levels. ITC which hit the upper circuit on Thursday was on the lower circuit on Friday. Huge selling pressure on Sensex-based stocks like NIIT, Ranbaxy, SBI, MTNL, and Reliance provided main contribution to the index's fall.

The software sector also came under severe selling pressure. Digital Equipment, Global Tele, Aptech, Himachal Futuristic, DSQ Software, SSI, Tata Elxsi, Wipro, Rolta, Pentafour Software, and Silverline, showed a fall of more than 5 per cent. In fact, most of these counters hit the lower circuit on the BSE. Satyam Computer remained firm for most part of the day. However, during the last hour of the day, Satyam too showed weakness and closed lower compared to its previous close. The drastic fall on Friday, according to Churiwala, "Reflects that the market lacks conviction at higher levels."