Markets fall further; Sensex loses 339 points

Indian equity benchmarks added losses to fall further in late afternoon session, impacted by weak opening of European markets. The fall is because of heavy selling pressure in all the sectoral indices, with Telecom index declined the most. Besides, in line with the larger peers, the broader markets too crumbling under pressure, with the losses of around a percent. Traders got cautious with former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan’s statement that over optimistic bankers, slowdown in government decision making process and moderation in economic growth mainly contributed to the mounting bad loans. The sentiments remained downbeat with a private report stating that India's economic growth is expected to moderate in the second half of this financial year after a strong first quarter, owing to tighter financial conditions, high oil prices and slowing global growth. Meanwhile, as many as 13 SEZ developers and units have sought more time from the commerce ministry to implement their projects.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, as Euro zone investor confidence deteriorated unexpectedly in September. As per survey data from think tank Sentix, the investor sentiment index fell to 12.0 in September from 14.7 in August. The score was forecast to rise to 15.0. Asian markets were also trading in red, as investors await the US tariff announcement on $200 billion of Chinese imports in a dispute over Beijing's technology policy. Back home, in scrip specific development, Tiaan Ayurvedic & Herbs touched the roof after the company entered into Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to acquire land in Maharashtra.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 37583.00, down by 339.17 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 37560.25 and 38043.27. There were 8 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.06%, while Small cap index was down by 0.94%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom down by 2.17%, FMCG down by 2.07%, Consumer Durables down by 1.79%, Realty down by 1.73% and Healthcare down by 1.39%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.26%, Asian Paints up by 0.84%, SBI up by 0.72%, Infosys up by 0.63% and NTPC up by 0.56%. On the flip side, ITC down by 2.82%, Power Grid Corporation down by 2.67%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.65%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.40% and Tata Steel down by 2.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in its major efforts, the finance ministry is in touch with the Reserve Bank of India for market intervention to check rupee depreciation.  Recently, the rupee has weakened to the lowest level against US dollar. Besides, the Reserve Bank of India is also selling dollars to pause the rupee fall, which led to decline in forex reserves from $426 billion in April to $400.10 billion at the end of August.

Finance Ministry said that the fall in rupee is not secular as it has strengthened against UK pound, euro, China yuan and Japanese yen, adding that there is nothing to worry about the situation as most of the global currencies have been impacted by strengthening dollar. In fact, rupee has strengthened against various other currencies.

Further, Ministry said that the RBI has sufficient foreign exchange reserve and noted that the government has the option of tapping NRIs for raising foreign exchange but a decision in this regard would be taken after due consideration.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11318.20, down by 119.90 points or 1.05% after trading in a range of 11316.25 and 11479.40. There were 7 stocks advancing against 43 stocks declining, while 1 index remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.26%, Bajaj Finserv up by 0.77%, Asian Paints up by 0.74%, Infosys up by 0.70% and SBI up by 0.40%. On the flip side, Titan down by 3.59%, ITC down by 3.15%, Power Grid Corporation down by 2.62%, UPL down by 2.52% and Hero MotoCorp down by 2.47% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng plunged 190.87 points or 0.72% to 26,422.55, Straits Times decreased 14.34 points or 0.46% to 3,106.58, Shanghai Composite lost 4.68 points or 0.18% to 2,664.80 and KOSPI fell 5.46 points or 0.24% to 2,283.20. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted increased 26.50 points or 0.25% to 10,752.30 and Nikkei 225 was up by 291.60 points or 1.29% to 22,664.69.

European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 29.72 points or 0.41% to 7,249.58 and Germany’s DAX was down by 38.76 points or 0.32% to 11,947.58. On the flip side, France’s CAC was up by 0.51 points or 0.01% to 5,270.14.