Benchmarks Extend Losses as Global Gloom Spreads; IT, Bank Stocks Hammered

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex crashed more than 1 per cent for the second straight session on Friday as investors stayed on the back foot amid a rout in global markets and liquidity concerns back home.

The 30-share Sensex tumbled 340.78 points to end at a fresh seven-month low of 33,349.31, while the broader NSE Nifty slipped 94.90 points to 10,030.00.

Continuous fall in the rupee, which depreciated to 73.45 (intra-day) against the dollar, and prevailing liquidity crunch remain key dampening factors, brokers said.

Most Asian markets skidded to multi-month lows and European shares opened sharply weaker on worries over corporate earnings and global growth.

Disappointing quarterly earnings from Maruti Suzuki, Yes Bank and a few others accelerated the selling momentum here, brokers added.

The Sensex moved in a range of 33,776.80 and 33,298.43 before settling down by 340.31 points, or 1.01 per cent, at 33,349.31. This is its lowest closing since April 5 when it had finished at 33,596.80.

The broader NSE Nifty ended 94.90 points, or 0.94 per cent down at 10,030 after shuttling between 10,128.85 and 10,004.55. This is its weakest closing since March 26, when the gauge had ended at 10,130.65 points.

On a weekly basis, both key indices Sensex and Nifty recorded their second straight week of losses by falling 966.32 points, or about 3 per cent, and 273.55 points, or 2.7 per cent, respectively.

Meanwhile, on a net basis, foreign funds sold shares worth Rs 1,495.71 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought shares to the tune of Rs 339.60 crore on Thursday, provisional data showed.

"Nifty made multiple attempts to turn positive but failed... The new lows in the Nifty however have not been accompanied by mid and small cap stocks and the inter-market divergence is a positive sign till it holds. The breadth was negative but not extreme.

"People are mostly reacting to overseas markets and Dow futures with no other triggers visible near term. However, as we head into next week they may start thinking about the US elections and domestic elections," said Rohit Srivastava, Fund Manager - PMS, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.

Shares of private sector lender Yes Bank emerged as the worst performer in the Sensex pack, plunging 8.97 per cent, after the company reported a decline of 3.8 per cent in net profit for the September quarter.

Other laggards included Axis Bank 4.04 per cent, IndusInd Bank 3.14 per cent, TCS 2.86 per cent, Kotak Bank 2.76 per cent, ONGC 2.47 per cent, Infosys 2.43 per cent, ITC Ltd 2.30 per cent, HUL 1.65 per cent, NTPC 1.58 per cent, PowerGrid 1.49 per cent, Asian Paints 0.93 per cent and Sun Pharma 0.72 per cent.

In contrast, Tata Motors, RIL, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, Hero MotoCorp and Wipro rose up to 2.09 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, the BSE Information Technology index fell the most at 2.05 per cent, followed by bankex 1.97 per cent, teck 1.85 per cent, FMCG 1.24 per cent, power 1.10 per cent, infra 0.94 per cent, realty 0.90 per cent, metal 0.75 per cent, PSU 0.65 per cent, oil and gas 0.42 per cent, healthcare 0.24 per cent and capital goods 0.19 per cent.

However, consumer durables and auto indices ended higher by up to 0.14 per cent.

The broader markets too displayed a weak trend, with the BSE small-cap and mid-cap indices falling by 0.39 per cent and 0.23 per cent, respectively.

In the Asian region, Japan's Nikkei fell 0.40 per cent, Korea's Kospi 1.75 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.21 per cent, Taiwan 0.33 per cent and Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.19 per cent.

European indices too were trading in the negative zone. Paris CAC dropped 1.91 per cent, Frankfurrt's DAX was down 1.59 per cent, while London's FTSE fell 1.35 per cent.