Europe woes, SBI downgrade drag Sensex 287 points lower

A steep fall in major banks post Moody's SBI downgrade and weak global trend weighed on the sentiments today. The Sensex tumbled 287 points and the Nifty slid 77 points.

Major headlines

SBI hits 52-week low after Moody’s downgrade

Prakash Constrowell makes smart gains on listing day

Maruti survives in the weak market

Cairn India slips as crude oil prices fall

Avantel advances on buyback plan



Indian indices

Already worried investors over euro zone debt crisis and weak economic outlook, got a further jolt after Moody's downgraded SBI’s standalone rating to D+ from C-. The banking space took the major hammering, which punctured markets. Also, brisk selling by foreign funds triggered by weak global trend amid fears of worsening euro-zone debt crisis too kept the markets weak. The Sensex fell below the 16000 mark and the Nifty slipped below 4800 level. The Indian markets closed at one-month low, ext ending fall for the third straight day.

Major heavyweight draggers — ICICI Bank, SBI, Coal India, M&M, Tata Motors, ITC, Sterlite Industries, Bharti Airtel, RIL, HDFC and ITC.

Sensex movements: The Sensex started the session 70 points lower at 16082 and then remained directionless in the first half of trade. However, the index saw some recovery in the early afternoon session and hit the intraday high of 16202. Then the Sensex fell again on account of weak opening of European markets and Moody's SBI downgrade, which dragged the index to intraday low of 15746 in the afternoon trade. The Sensex closed lower by 287 points at 15865 and the Nifty fell 77 points to settle at 4772.

Market sentiment

The market breadth stood very weak. Of the 2872 stocks traded on the BSE, 985 (34.30%) gained, 1762 (61.35%) lost and 125 (4.35%) were unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

Among the 13 sectoral indices, 12 closed the session in the red zone. The only gainer was BSE CG, up by 0.57%. Biggest losers — BSE Bankex declined by 3.09%, BSE Auto fell by 1.94% and BSE PSU down by 1.77%. Remaining nine dipped in the range of 0.59-1.74%.

In 'A' group stocks, top performers — Patni Computer Systems surged by 4.57%, Maruti Suzuki India up by 2.73% and Cadila Healthcare rose by 2.14%. Top losers — Jubilant Foodworks fell by 11.39%, Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Company declined by 7.21% and Jaypee Infratech down by 5.95%.

Viewing volumes

Indian shipbuilder - Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Company was traded the most with over 0.45 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. Following that, a Jaypee Group firm - Jaiprakash Associates (0.39 crore shares), industrial finance company - IFCI (0.37 crore shares), India's second largest developer - Unitech (0.29 crore shares) and India's largest automobile company - Tata Motors (0.26 crore shares).

Global Indices:

The European markets were hit by more waves of selling on Tuesday as the euro and European bank shares slid, credit default swap spreads widened and base metals slumped—hitting all the major stock indexes. Investors retreated after Greece confirmed it had found a $2 billion hole in its budget, putting even more pressure on the eurozone.

The Asian stocks slipped on Tuesday, as foreign investors continued to pull back from large-cap names with financials and commodity trading houses among the weakest performers. Shanghai Composite remained shut.

The US stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Tuesday on increased worries about a major banking crisis in Europe and expectations Greece would default soon.

Market Outlook: US Factory orders will be out on Tuesday.