Recession fears hits equities; Sensex sinks 1,093 points, Nifty gives up 17,600


Bears prowled on Dalal Street on Friday as recession fears hammered global equities. Key indices crumbled under heavy selling pressure today with banks (especially in the public sector), auto, IT, metal, and realty stocks plunging the most on the bourses. Their respective indices on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) declined around 2-4 per cent.

At the headline level, the S&P BSE Sensex crashed 1,247 points intra-day before ending at 58,841, down 1,093 points or 1.82 per cent. The NSE Nifty50, too, sunk to a low of 17,505 before shutting shop at 17,551, down 326 points or 1.82 per cent.

The broader markets witnessed an equally brutal on-slaught with the Nifty MidCap 100 and SmallCap 100 falling in the range of 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent. Volatility index — India VIX — surged 8 per cent today to settle near 20-odd level.

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Sensex ends on Friday 152 points lower, Nifty below 9,600 as investors book profits


The benchmark indices settled lower on Friday as investors booked profits in financials such as State Bank of India and auto makers such as Maruti Suzuki India. The negative trend in European and Asian markets also impacted the sentiment.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 31,138, down 152 points, while the broader Nifty50 settled at 9,574, down 55 points.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Midcap and the S&P BSE Smallcap indices shed over 1% each.

Market breadth depicted weakness. There were more than three losers against every gainer on BSE. 1,936 shares fell and 683 shares rose. A total of 137 shares were unchanged.

For the week, both the indices logged small weekly gains on hopes the Reserve Bank of India will cut interest rates after minutes from a monetary policy committee meeting earlier this month showed one member acknowledging that inflation had eased.

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