Nifty hits 52- week low; Sensex falls 371 points

Global economic uncertainty shook investor confidence, which led to a worldwide sell-off in today’s trade. The Sensex closed 371 points lower and the Nifty fell 112 points

Major headlines

Food inflation at 9.03% versus 9.9%

Educomp Solutions hits 52-week low on I-T raid

Suven Life gains on securing patents



Indian indices

It was a bad day for markets led by heavy sell-off mainly in the banking and technology shares. Weak global cues and concerns of possible rate hike after a spike in food inflation further dampened the sentiments. Investors sold-off stocks on concerns of global economy slipping into recession. Selling intensified across the board, which dragged the Nifty to new 52-week intra-day low. The broader indices also bore the brunt of selling today. The Nifty closed at its lowest level since June 2010.

Sensex movements: The Sensex opened the trade higher by 69 points at 16910 and suddenly touched the day's high of 16917. Soon the index slipped in red and extended fall all throughout the day. Decline in the global stocks and selling across the board dragged the Sensex to day’s low of 16433 in last half hour of trade. The Sensex oscillated 484 points between day’s high and low. The Sensex tanked 371 points to settle at 16470 and the Nifty stood at 4944, down by 112 points.

Market sentiment

The market breadth was extremely weak. Of the 2963 stocks traded on the BSE, 679 (22.92%) rose, 2180 (73.57%) fell and 104 (3.51%) remained unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

All the 13 sectors were under bear grip and post losses at the close. BSE IT was the biggest loser declining by 3.99% followed by BSE Bankex down by 3.51% and BSE TECk slipped by 3.15%. Rest fell in the range of 0.02-2.55%.

In 'A' group stocks, top three gainers - Suzlon Energy shot up by 5.53%, DLF advanced by 2.70% and Bharat Electronics gained by 1.58%. Top three losers - Educomp Solutions tumbled by 8.90%, Tech Mahindra slid by 7.51% and Power Finance Corporation (PFC) declined by 7.17%.

Viewing volumes

Wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy saw highest trading, with over 0.61 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. It was followed by India's biggest real estate developer - DLF (0.25 crore shares), a real estate company - Indiabulls Real Estate (0.23 crore shares), India's second largest real estate developer - United (0.22 crore shares) and a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources - Sterlite Industries (0.22 crore shares).

Global Indices:

The European stocks fell sharply on Thursday, with banks plunging further into the red following suit as concerns about the global economy continued to weigh.

Barring Jakarta Composite, all the major Asian stock markets closed on a negative note on Thursday on global growth worries.

The US stock index futures pointed to a sharply lower open on Wall Street on Thursday.

Market Outlook: In the US, Jobless Claims and Consumer Price Index will be watched on Thursday.