Today, the Indian market was highly volatile on the back of the developments along the Korean border and over concerns over the political future of the UPA-led government, which has been rocked by corruption allegations.

The Sensex opened at 19,841.42; 116.17 points lower compared to its previous close of 19,957.59. It hit an intraday low of 19,342.69-which is the maximum low in the past three months from 16 September 2010, to close at 19,691.84. This was 265.75 points down (1.33%) from the previous day's close. The Nifty ended 75.25 points down (1.25%) to 5,934.75.

In today's market fall, among the Sensex 30 stocks, Maruti Suzuki and Hindustan Unilever were the only stocks which ended positive. The maximum fall was seen in Tata Power (3.04%) followed by SBI (2.83%). Out of the Nifty 50, only eight stocks ended in positive terrain.

All the BSE sectoral indices were in the negative. The maximum loss was noticed in BSE Realty (3.26%) followed by BSE PSU (1.85%) while the BSE TECk, BSE IT, BSE Capital Goods, BSE Healthcare and BSE Auto indices fell in the range between 0.06% to 0.90%. Among the other indices on the BSE, BSE IPO fell the maximum (2.11%) followed by the BSE Small-cap index (which fell 1.70%).

All Asian indices closed in the red (in the range of about 0.50% to around 2.70%) except for the Nikkei 225, which ended positively flat-92.80 points up to end at 10,115.19. China's Shanghai Composite fell 1.94% to a six-week closing low of 2,828.28 today, due to the recent monetary-tightening measures and the Korean imbroglio.

Global markets were hugely influenced by the North Korean revelation to move ahead with uranium enrichment, a possible second path to manufacture material for atomic weapons. North Korea also fired dozens of artillery shells at a South Korean island.

US markets were in the red. The Dow opened about 2 points below the previous day's close and was trading 24.97 points below (at 11,178.58) while in the European market almost all indices ended in the red.

On Monday, foreign institutional investors and domestic institutional investors moved together in the same direction. They pumped in Rs336 crore and Rs212crore respectively into Indian equity markets.

In corporate developments, state-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) and its partners will divest 40% of their stake in a gas-bearing block in offshore Australia to US-based Apache Corp.

"We have agreed to farm out a part of our stake in WA-388-P to Apache," said HPCL CMD Subir Roychowdhary. HPCL, Bharat PetroResources Ltd (a unit of state-owned BPCL), Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC) and Videocon Industries each have 14% interest in the block. Post-divestment, their stakes will drop to 8.4% each.

Bharati Shipyard, one of India's leading ship-building companies, today said it has proposed to acquire majority 51% equity stake and management control in south-based Tebma Shipyards Ltd for a consideration of Rs 75.75 crore. Earlier, Bharati Shipyard had successfully acquired Great Offshore for Rs880 crore, after a fierce takeover battle with ABG Shipyard Ltd.

As part of its continuing divestment programme, the government has decided to sell 30% stake held through Telecommunications Consultants of India Ltd (TCIL) in Bharti Hexacom Ltd. Minister of state for communications and IT, Sachin Pilot, informed the Lok Sabha today, that the government has approved 'in-principle' sale of the entire 30% stake of TCIL in Bharti Hexacom.

The sale should be at the "right time to obtain the best price", he added.

Bharti Airtel holds 70% and TCIL holds the remaining 30% in Bharti Hexacom. To another query, Mr Pilot said that the government had taken various steps, including setting up of special economic zones and task forces, for the development of the hardware sector in the country.

Utility vehicle and tractor major, Mahindra & Mahindra today signed a definitive agreement to buy 70% in the troubled South Korean vehicle maker SsangYong Motor Company (SYMC) for $463 million (Rs2,083 crore). The agreement was signed by Yooil Lee and Youngtae Park, joint-court appointed receivers of SYMC and Pawan Goenka, president (automotive and farm equipment sectors), M&M, in Korea.

M&M has agreed to subscribe to new stock of SsangYong worth $378 million and $85 million in corporate bonds.