Indian Stocks Muted; Renewed Weakness in China Drag Asian Markets

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) on Friday opened on a higher note during the morning session of the trade. The S&P BSE Sensex, which opened at 24,606.20 points, was trading at 24,782.61 points (3.00 p.m.), down 71.50 points or 0.29 percent from the previous day’s close at 24,854.11 points.

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex nosedived over 365 points in early trade on Thursday due to sustained capital outflows after a rout in global stock markets following overnight sell-off on Wall Street.

The NSE Nifty index after cracking 7,500-mark, touched the session’s low of 7,487.80. The Nifty registered a high and low of 7,588.30 and 7,487.80 points respectively. The market breadth remained dismal with 1,735 shares declining and 941 shares advancing on the BSE.

In overseas market, Asian shares were trading lower.

Wednesday was a turbulent day, which saw both the Sensex and Nifty touch a 52 week high intra-day.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index jumped 2 percent on Wednesday, climbing from a three-year low, amid speculation that a selloff that erased more than $5 trillion from global equity values this year had gone too far. “Current account deficit is expected to be in the range of 1-1.3 percent in current year, well under control”, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das tweeted. According to Reuters, consumer inflation probably edged up for the fifth straight month in December, driven by higher food prices.

Nitasha Shankar, vice president for research with YES Securities, elaborated that the broader markets recovered marginally after plummeting sharply lower in early trade; however, they ended in the red.

With today’s plunge, the benchmark index has wiped off all the gains made since the swearing-in ceremony of the new government on May 26, 2014. However, information technology pocket showed some resilience for most part of the session and attracted buying interests, but finally give up most of its strength and settled with marginal gains.

“PSU (public sector undertakings) banks, reality, auto and metal indices continue to bleed”.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers during the day’s trade, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers. It ended weaker by 30 paise at 67.60 to a United States dollar from its previous close of 67.30 to a greenback.

Other major losers that dragged down the key indices included Tata Motors, Axis Bank, BHEL, L&T, M&M, SBI, ONGC, ICICI Bank, Asian Paint, GAIL, Coal Inda, NTPC and Bharti Airtel.