Stocks end 151 points lower

Stocks end 151 points lower

Volatility was at its peak Friday as gloomy global economic outlook eclipsed the euphoria over a rally in overseas markets and cool-off in domestic inflation. Equity benchmarks opened on a firm footing but lost ground after the first half-hour of trade. After see-sawing through the day, key indices finally surrendered to losses. “Global worries continue to haunt market sentiment. Even though inflation eased to single digit, it failed to cheer investors. Given the current pessimistic scenario, it looks like the market is not willing to accept any positive news,” said Ajay Parmar, head of research at Emkay Global Financial Services. More so, investors were unwilling to take any bets ahead of the crucial G-20 summit underway in Washington. The G20 summit of industrialised and emerging economies will explore ways to deal with the world's biggest financial crisis. “Investors are not at all confident of carrying positions overnight, which is why there is unwinding happening at higher levels,” Parmar added.

Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex ended 1.58 per cent or 150.91 points lower at 9,385.42. The index fell to a low of 9,267.49 from a high of 9,836.11. National Stock Exchange's Nifty slipped 1.34 per cent or 38.1 points to 2810.35. The index swung in a range of 2778.80 and 2938.80.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were down 1.99 per cent and 1.27 per cent respectively. Biggest losers in the Sensex pack were ACC (-8.95%), Tata Motors (8.49%), Tata Steel (-6.4%), HDFC (4.86%), Jaiprakash Associates (-4.67%) and Larsen & Toubro (-4.36%). Reliance Industries, the heaviest among Sensex stocks, fell for the fourth straight day, losing 1.17 per cent at Rs 1,148.55. Intra-day, the stock fell to a low of Rs 1088.65. In the last four days, RIL has declined by 5.69 per cent. Bharti Airtel (2.99%), Reliance Communications (1.88%), Tata Power (2.02%), HDFC Bank (0.37%) and Hindustan Unilever (0.3%) ended with decent gains. Market breadth remained negative with 1594 declines against 924 advances on BSE. Adding to the gloom, investors were worried about the state of the country's economy after economists lowered their forecasts for India. Many now expect growth to slow to 7 per cent or less in the year to March 2009, sharply slower than 9 per cent and higher growth clocked up in the past three fiscal years. Elsewhere, the Euro zone slipped into recession, third-quarter data confirmed. The quarterly decline was prompted mainly by a technical recession in the Euro zone's biggest economy, Germany, and the third-biggest, Italy. However, the second-biggest, France defied market expectations of a similar fate, growing by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter.


Source:ET