Market slumps deeper in red; Sensex down by over 600 points

The Indian markets are not getting any respite, instead the selling has aggravated and the major benchmarks are reeling in deep red in the early noon session. The sharp sell-off that resulted the benchmark indices lose their crucial support levels of 27000 (Sensex) and 8200 (Nifty) was still keeping the markets under pressure with intensified profit taking. Traders were concerned about some important legislation like GST and Land bill getting blocked in the parliament’s upper house where the government lacks majority. The market has also turned jittery with the surge in international crude oil prices which has potential impact on inflation. There was fears of supply disruptions from Libya after a key port in the North African nation was shut down, taking the crude prices to their highest level in last one year. Traders were unable to get any respite with the recovery in rupee, which has strengthened on fresh selling of the American currency by exporters. On the sectoral front, none of the gauges was showing any resistance, trading lower by 2-3.5%. Sharper cuts were being witnessed at capital goods, power, metal and banking counters. The broader markets too were suffering cuts of around three percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26826.75, down by 613.39 points or 2.24% after trading in a range of 26801.24 and 27501.15. There was just 1 stock advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices too were trading deep in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 2.63%, while Small cap index slumped by 2.74%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods down by 3.53%, Power down by 3.28%, Metal down by 3.17%, PSU down by 3.11%, Realty down by 3.04%.

The lone gainer on the Sensex was Bharti Airtel up by 3.37%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 4.68%, NTPC down by 4.28%, Vedanta down by 4.09%, Larsen & Toubro down by 3.83% and Tata Power down by 3.54% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has approved 19 FDI proposals worth Rs 2,165 crore, based on the recommendations of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). The cleared approvals includes Mylan Laboratories’ FDI proposal worth Rs 128.77 crore. The pharma firm had sought prior approval for increase in the level of FDI in the company by existing non-resident shareholders, MP Laboratories (Mauritius) Ltd. And Mylan Luxembourg pursuant to a composite scheme of arrangement.

The approvals also included Rs 1,290 crore investment proposal of Bharti AXA Life and General Insurance, Rs 124-crore proposal of another pharma company Par Formulations Private and Curatio Healthcare's proposal of Rs 93.43 crore too has been approved.

The FIPB also cleared FCC Clutch India's proposal of 444.50 crore. FCC India had sought permission to acquire additional 50 per cent equity stake (represented by 39,50,000 equity shares) in FCC Rico from FCC Co Ltd, the consideration for which would be discharged by swap of shares wherein FCC India's equity shares would be issued to FCC Japan.

However, FIPB deferred 10 proposals including that of BASF Chemical India Pvt Ltd, Vivimed Labs Ltd and Sharekhan Ltd. It also rejected 12 proposals including Nickelodeon Asia Holdings Pte Ltd, Singapore, S Kumars Nationwide Limited and Warden Petrochem Pvt Ltd.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8126.65, down by 198.15 points or 2.38% after trading in a range of 8120.45 and 8331.95. There were 1 stocks advancing against 49 stocks declining on the index.

The one gainer on Nifty was Bharti Airtel up by 3.36%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 4.98%, Ambuja Cement down by 4.49%, Vedanta down by 4.23%, NTPC down by 4.22% and BPCL down by 4.17% were the top losers.

The Asian markets outside Japan were trading in red, only Nikkei 225 up by11.62 points or 0.06% to 19,531.63 was trading in green.

On the other hand, Hang Seng lost 98.08 points or 0.35% to 27,657.46, Shanghai Composite declined by 31.14 points or 0.72% to 4,267.57, KOSPI Index was lower by 27.65 points or 1.3% to 2,104.58, Straits Times was down by13.55 points or 0.39% to 3,457.64, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased by 9.58 points or 0.52% to 1,817.84, Jakarta Composite was lower by 5.5 points or 0.11% to 5,154.81and Taiwan Weighted was marginally down by 1.93 points or 0.02% to 9,818.20.