Markets continued its losing streak for the second straight session on back of weak global cues and lower-than-expected IIP data. Sell-off in front liners ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Larsen & Tourbo, State Bank of India and Infosys dragged the Sensex down 432 points to 20,156. The S&P CNX Nifty shed 123 points to 6072.
The bourses slouched to the industrial output data for the month of September which was reported at 4.4%, lower than revised forecast of 6.9% in August. Shares from the Capital Goods and power sector dented, Larsen and Tourbo dropped 2.5%, Suzlon cracked 3.8%, Punj LLoyd was off 3.3% and GVK Power shed 2.9%.
Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee showed concern over IIP slipping for the second consecutive month and added that they would analyse the cause of slow down.
Analsysts expect markets to remain volatile in the coming sessions due to the developments globally.
"There are a lot of events happening globally like the G20, Ireland's mounting debt, Greece crisis again which have resurfaced and, also the IIP data will lead to a lot of volatility in coming days," said Shailesh Kadam, AVP-Derivatives, PINC Research. Andrew Holland, CEO-Equities, Ambit Capital was also wary of the markets and little less bullish on back of global events and lower than expected stimulus program announced by the Fed. "Expect a 10% correction by end of this year" he added.
Other Asian bourses also ended lower on fresh concerns stemming out of Europe and China. Chinese stocks nose dived (down 5.2%), biggest decline in 14 months amid speculations that the Shanghai may tighten further to curb inflation. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average was down 1.4%, South Korea's Kospi Composite fell 0.1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid 1.7% and Taiwan Weighted ended lower by 1.4%.Asia's steep decline was echoed by the European bourses, the UK's FTSE 100 index dropped 0.9%, the French CAC 40 index fell 1.7% and the German DAX 30 index lost 0.7% with commodity shares leading the losses.
Quarterly numbers dictated the direction of the shares even today; Hindalco cracked 4.7%, although it reported a 26% rise in second quarter profit to Rs 434 cr. Lanco Infra dropped over 4% after net profit fell 43% to Rs 70 cr.
Bharti Airtel was leading the losses for the third straight session; the stock was down 4% today. DLF continued its losing run, the share was the top loser on Sensex, down 6% after Credit Suisse downgraded the stock to neutral because of the weak operating performance in the second quarter.
Other losers on the benchmark were Mahindra & Mahindra and SBI (down 5.2% each), SBI (down 5.2%), ICICI Bank (down 3.1%), L&T (down 2.5%), Infosys (down 2%) and Reliance Industries (down 1.9%).
Only 2 components on the Sensex ended in the green, Hero Honda (up 0.3%) and HDFC (down 0.1%).
Hindustan Copper tumbled 7.7% to Rs 407 as traders' dialed back expectation that government would price the follow-on-offer at a substantial discount.
Even Power Grid was bruised badly when the FPO price band was fixed at a discount between Rs 85-90, the stock was down 1.6% today at Rs 100, the FPO closed today and was subscribed 13.28 times.
Realty stocks lost ground, the index ended down 4.9%. Sobha Developers fell 6%, Unitech was down 5.9% and Indiabulls Real Estate edged down 5.2%. Even Consumer Durbales share were also beaten down badly, the index fell 4.9%.
Whirlpool (down 5.5%), VIP Industires (5.1%), and Gitanjali Gems (down 4.3%) were the top losers. Other sectoral indices also closed in the negative.
Broader markets also ended in the red, midcap and smallcap indices slipped more than 2% each.Market breadth was negative, 2263 share declined for 753 stocks that advanced.
