The markets ended sharply lower, breaking a five-session winning streak. The benchmark indices saw a huge sell-off on the back of weak global cues. The Nifty slipped below the 3000 mark while the Sensex closed below the 9600 level. Banking, realty, metal and technology stocks were worst hit in today's trade followed by infrastructure stocks.
The 30-share Sensex touched an intraday low of 9,520.96, before closing the day at 9,568.14, down 480.35 points or 4.78%. The 50-share NSE Nifty shut shop at 2978.15, down 4.2% or 130.50 points, after hitting day's low 2962.40. All sectoral indices saw steep decline barring Healthcare Index; BSE Bank, Metal and Realty indices fell 7-8.5%.
Heavyweights like SBI, ONGC, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, TCS, HDFC, SAIL, BHEL, Reliance Communication, DLF, HDFC Bank and Tata Steel were biggest losing players in today's trade. However, Sun Pharma, BPCL and NTPC were only three stocks closed in green.
The Nifty April futures premium increased to 17 points in the last half an hour of trade. The Nifty put-call ratio declined to 1.46 from 1.51.
At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets were trading sharply lower after taking negative cues from the US futures, which were indicating deep cut in the US markets during opening trade. The FTSE 100 was down 88 points, to 3,809 points. The CAC 40 fell 77 points, to 2,763 and the DAX was down 145 points, to 4,058.
In the US futures, the Dow Jones Futures were trading at 7,586, down 176 points and the Nasdaq Futures were trading at 1,227.50, down 28.5 points. The US auto task force rejected turnaround plans of GM and Chrysler, wherein General Motors (GM) given 60 days to develop more restructuring while Chrysler given 30 days to complete revised Fiat tie-up. The US government is going to provide working capital to GM and US president Barack Obama will announce next step in helping GM and Chrysler. GM's CEO Rick Wagoner has resigned.
Robert Parker, Vice Chairman, Credit Suisse Asset Management, said markets are currently trading weak on profit-booking after the recent rally. He sees low probability of markets going back to retest the lows of early March and believes there is limited downside risk in global markets. Parker feels sharp rallies are possible. According to him, bankruptcy of General Motors (GM) is weighing heavily on investor sentiment.
Asian markets ended sharply lower, after rallying nearly 20-25% in last two week. The Nikkei witnessed biggest decline in the last 2 months, fell 4.53%, as Japan's Industrial Output fell for fifth consecutive month in February.
Seoul Composite declined 3.24%. Hang Seng lost 4.7%. Straits Times and Taiwan Weighted fell 3.4-4.15%. Shanghai just declined 0.7%.
Among other news from Asia - South Korea posted biggest current account surplus in 11 years due to weak currency. FIIs net sold $67 million in Taiwanese market today (provisional figures). Aluminum Corporation posted bigger than expected net loss in Q4. In the auto space, Toyota, Nissan and Honda Motor fell 3.5-6.5%.
Source: Moneycontrol
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