Downfall continues on Dalal Street for seventh straight session; Nifty below 4,900 mark

It seems to be boundless downfall around Dalal Street as key benchmarks extended their losses for the seventh straight session on the tune of global rout. Globally, world stocks and oil prices fell overnight as a rise in Spain’s borrowing costs to almost 7% at an auction fed fears that the euro-zone debt crisis could spread further. Key Wall Street stock indices fell more than a percent, with the Nasdaq slumping more than two percent. While, all the Asian shares fell for a fourth day in a row and the dollar firmed on Friday as Europe’s funding difficulties intensified. Back home, BSE’s Senxex and NSE’s Nifty lost their crucial 16,400 and 4,900 mark in early trade as trading sentiment remained bearish following fall in Asian stock markets amid deepening euro-zone debt crisis. The broader indices too were bleeding badly at this point of time while, the market breadth has made a negative start; there were 390 shares on the gaining side against 1,198 shares on the losing side while 42 shares remained unchanged. Moreover, data showing selling by foreign funds recently also weighed on sentiment. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 195.20 crore on November 17, 2011. However, PSU oil marketing companies like, HPCL and BPCL edged higher with the sharp fall in the international crude prices.

The BSE Sensex opened at 16,387.70; about 343 points lower compared to its previous closing of 16,461.71, and has touched a low of 16,286.29 while high remain its opening.

The index is currently trading at 16,332.04, down by 129.67 points or 0.79%. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a subdued start with only 23.93% stocks advancing against 73.50% declines. The broader indices too were bleeding badly; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were down by 1.41% and 1.22% respectively.

CD down by 1.91%, Oil and Gas down by 1.89%, Power down by 1.70%, Metal down by 1.31% and Bankex down by 1.28% were the top losers on the index. While, there were no gainer on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 1.01%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.98%, Sun Pharma up by 0.82%, HUL up by 0.76% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.58%. While, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.27%, BHEL down by 3.14%, RIL down by 2.73%, Hindalco down by 2.53% and Tata Motors down by 2.43% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, at a time when India’s economic growth is showing signs of slowing down and developed economies are on the verge of recession, the Ministry of Labour released its Quarterly Quick Employment Surveys on employment in the eight selected sectors, which showed that overall employment rose by 2.15 lakh during the June quarter. The surveys conducted by Labour Bureau assess the impact of economic slowdown on employment in India.

According to the figures released by Labour Ministry, hiring in the eight selected sectors viz. Textiles including Apparels, Leather, Metals, Automobiles, Gems &Jewellery, Transport, IT/BPO and Handloom/Powerloom, grew 2.15% during April-June 2011, compared to 1.74% in the previous quarter and 1.62% a year ago.  However, Textiles and Transport were the two sectors were employment got impacted due to global financial crisis and economic slowdown in India and hiring declined by 0.33% and 0.02% respectively. 

On the sectoral front, the IT/BPO sector registered the highest growth of 1.64 lakh in employment during the period June 2011 over March 2011, followed by rise of 0.53 lakh in Metals, 0.18 lakh in Automobiles, 0.13 lakh in Gems & Jewellery and 0.01 lakh in Leather and Handloom/Powerloom sectors each.

The maximum increase in overall employment by 1.90 lakh is seen in the direct category of workers as compared to 0.25 lakh in the contract category of workers at overall level during the period June 2011 over March 2011. In the export oriented units, the employment at the overall level has increased by 0.67 lakh whereas in the non-exporting units, it has increased by 1.48 lakh during the period June 2011 over March 2011.

While comparing the results of the last four quarterly surveys conducted during 2010-11 i.e. June 2011 over June 2010, the overall employment has increased by 10.31 lakh, with highest increase of 7 lakh in IT/BPO followed by 1.31 lakh in Textiles including Apparels, 0.96 lakh in Metals, 0.78 lakh in Automobiles, 0.16 lakh in Transport and 0.13 lakh in Leather during the period.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 4,899.15; about 127 points lower compared to its previous closing of 4,934.75, and has touched a high and a low of 4,902.25 and 4,875.80 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 4,889.15, down by 45.60 points or 0.92%. There were 10 stocks advancing against 40 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 1.24%, Cipla up by 0.95%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.80%, Sun Pharma up by 0.65% and DLF up by 0.59%.

RPower down by 3.48%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.94%, BHEL down by 2.90%, Tata Motors down by 2.71% and ICICI Bank was down by 2.60%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were bleeding badly; Shanghai Composite was down 33.19 points or 1.35% to 2,429.86, Hang Seng was down 341.23 points or 1.81% to18,476.24, Jakarta Composite was down 36.41 points or 0.96% to 3,755.84, KLSE Composite was down 2.19 points or 0.15% to 1,463.28, Nikkei 225 was down 96.14 points or 1.13% to 8,383.49, Straits Times was down 30.56 points or 1.10% to 2,747.69, Seoul Composite was down 37.13 points or 1.98% t o1,839.54 and Taiwan Weighted was down 130.79 points or 1.77% to 7,257.02.