Terrible Thursday; Sensex tanks 704 points on global carnage

The sentiment remained bearish, with investors reacting badly to Fed’s policy decision and downbeat view on economic growth. The Sensex fell 704 points and the Nifty dropped 210 points

Major headlines

Gravita India soars on buying more stake in J&K unit

Food inflation at 8.84% versus 9.47%

Asahi Infra, Avon Corp, K Sera, IKF Tech down on SEBI’s order



Indian indices

Federal Reserve's assessment that the US economy faces significant downside risks rattled investors across the globe. Weak Chinese data and a sharp fall in rupee also weighed on the sentiment. Panic selling was seen across the board on concerns of global economic health, which sent markets tumbling whole day.

Global sell-off triggered the biggest point fall on the Nifty since October 2008 and biggest percentage fall since August 2009. The Indian markets closed the session in deep red, ext ending two-day fall.

Sensex movements: Global jitters dragged the Sensex 237 points lower at 16828 in the opening trade. All-round selling and weakness across the globe kept the index under pressure all throughout the day. In the late trade, massive fall in the European markets and a sharp crack in major sectors led the index to hit the day’s low of 16316. The Sensex slumped 704 points to close at 16361 and the Nifty slid 210 points to settle at 4924.

Market sentiment

The market breadth stood terribly weak, with 2235 shares falling, 606 shares rising and 81 traded unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

All the sectoral indices were badly hit. BSE Realty stood the worst performer declining by 5.67%, followed by BSE Metal down by 4.34% and BSE Oil & Gas lost by 4.19%. Remaining sectors closed lower in the range of 2.19% to 4.10%.

In 'A' group stocks, top performers - Shree Cement up by 1.61%, HPCL rose by 0.84% and IOC up by 0.73%. Biggest losers - Educomp Solutions down by 9.55%, Jaiprakash Associates declined by 9.33% and Lanco Infratech fell by 9.17%.

Viewing volumes

India's second largest developer - Unitech witnessed highest trading with over 0.43 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. Then comes wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy (0.34 crore shares), Jaypee Group firm - Jaiprakash Associates (0.34 crore shares), an integrated infrastructure development company - Lanco Infratech (0.26 crore shares) and industrial finance company - IFCI (0.25 crore shares).

Global indices

The European stock markets collapsed on Thursday, with financial shares leading the losses after the Federal Reserve's pessimistic view on the US economic outlook overshadowed the central bank's latest attempt to bolster the world's largest economy.

The Asian markets closed the session with heavy losses on Thursday after the Federal Reserve cited significant risks to the US economy.

Heavy losses in the US stock futures on worries over global economy have set the stage for a weak start on the Wall Street on Thursday.

Market Outlook: US Jobless Claims data will be out on Thursday.