Bloodbath at D-street: Sensex crashes 800 pts, Nifty plunges below 7,000

Triggered by the global sell-off, the Indian equities witnessed hefty selling across all the sectoral indices on Thursday, with the benchmark Sensex crashed below 23,000-level while the NSE Nifty breached 7,000 mark. The foreign investors continued to wipe out cash fund from emerging markets like India over the prospects of the world economy amidst an ongoing slump in crude oil prices and worries over China.

The BSE SENSEX closed at 22951.83, down by 807.07 points, or by 3.4 per cent, and the NSE Nifty ended 239.35 points or 3.32 per cent lower at 6976.35.

The traders hit the “Sell” button after Fed Chair Janet Yellen on Wednesday signaled uncertainty over China’s growth prospects and an ongoing commodity rout, fears that have pushed global equities to the cusp of a bear market. While Yellen reiterated that the Fed remains on track to gradually raise interest rates, she conceded that the world’s top central bank may have to alter its interest rates forecasts amidst a continued financial market rout, meaning that the Fed may delay further rate hikes.

On the corporate front, shares of SBI ended 3 per cent lower after the country’s largest public sector lender reported a sharp decline of 67.09 per cent in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,259.49 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2015, due to rise in provisions and bad loans.

The BSE MIDCAP closed at 9690.9, down by 327.22 points or by 3.27 per cent, while the BSE SMLCAP ended at 9801.26, down by 476.45 points, or by 4.64 per cent.

The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd. (Rs. 188.50,-6.94%), Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (Rs. 120.35,-6.01%), Tata Motors Ltd. (Rs. 275.65,-5.55%), Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (Rs. 202.80,-5.23%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 1126.00,-4.93%), among others.

Meanwhile, Cipla Ltd. (Rs. 541.00,+0.40%), Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. (Rs. 2887.00,+0.01%), were among top gainers on BSE.

On the sectoral front, all the thirteen sectoral indices ended bleeding in red, with realty and power stocks emerged as top losers, falling 5.94 per cent and 4.81 per cent, respectively.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 2965, shares advanced were 400 while 2455 shares declined and 110 were unchanged.

On the global front, Hang Seng ended nearly 4 per cent lower in reopening after a three-day holiday, signaling a deepening contagion that has struck global equities. While markets in mainland China remained closed for the Lunar New Year Holidays and that in Japan were also shut for a national holiday.