The outcome in the Parliament let loose bears who run amok and unloaded shares on a broad front. ``There were no buyers in the market. Even die-hard bulls were seen unloading shares,'' said a broker. The market capitalisation (total value of listed shares on BSE) fell by nearly Rs 22,000 crore to around Rs 4,90,000 crore. The highly volatile movement of the Sensex during the special session put marketmen on tenterhooks and nervousness was writ large on the faces of punters.

During morning trades, the Bombay Stock Exchange actually flagged off the session on a positive note. Sensex started at 3694.11 and shotup to 3709.57 as marketmen, who were hopeful of the survival of the government in the morning, bought shares heavily. However, as soon as the outcome of the voting was announced in the Parliament shortly after the mid-session, operators started selling heavily. Sensex witnessed an across-the-board decline as soon as the electronic indicator in the Parliament showed the results. Within a span of few minutes, the crash accelerated the index plunged by a record 413 points from the highest level in the morning session and closed at 3326.98.

The story was repeated on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) where the S&P CNP Nifty Index lost by 77.50 points or 7.42 per cent at 966.95 from the previous close of 1044.45. Other stock exchanges in Delhi and Chennai also suffered huge losses. Almost all the scrips in the specified group of the BSE closed with huge losses and several of them hit the circuit filter limit and trading was stopped. Foreign investors also joined the selling spree and contributed to thecrash.

The index had zoomed by 216 points on Friday when the Indian National Lok Dal announced its decision to support the confidence motion. Saturday's fall on the BSE was the fifth historic fall and second biggest after March 31, 1997 when in a similar situation the Congress had withdrawn support to the Deve Gowda government.

With the defeat of the confidence motion sought by the Vajpayee government in the Lok Sabha, marketmen are worried about the the fate of the Union budget 1999-2000, continuing political instability and worsening of the economic slowdown and the investment scenario. In fact, there is widespread concern among investors about the composition of the new government and the fate of the budget. ``If the Congress forms the new government, incorporating other parties as well and presents the budget, retaining its basic structure, the sentiment in the capital market will definitely be revived,'' said a fund manager.

JM Morgan Stanley president BD Gupta said the stock market will remainvolatile till uncertainty prevailed over the next government. ``A Congress government could have a positive impact on the market as it was known for economic reforms and liberalisation since 1991,'' he said.

``The markets are extremely volatile and sentiment driven. It all depends on the new government and in what form they will pass the finance bill and other crucial bills. The larger concern is of course the fact that Lok Sabha is split vertically down the middle with margin of one vote! Hence, the fate of the new government would also hang in the same way. The downside from today's level is limited and it can go down by another 6-7 per cent from Saturday level. But, the configuration of the political forces will decide the fate of the markets,'' said an analyst with SBI Mutual Fund. BSE president Anand Rathi expressed concern for the budget saying whichever government came to power should give prime consideration to investors' interests.