Sensex, Nifty fall for sixth straight session; lowest close in 14 months.
Indian shares recouped a majority of their early losses on Tuesday to finish lower, as investors across the world continued their flight towards safer assets on concerns over the euro zone debt crisis and recession fears in the US.
Investors also turned their focus to a Federal Reserve meeting later in the day for indications of whether the US central bank might ease monetary policy further.
In a volatile session, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark Sensex opened at 16,517.87 on Tuesday, tracking weak Asian markets, and fell as low as 16,432 in the morning. It briefly turned positive in the afternoon session and touched a high of 17,135.04. The 30-stock index finally ended down 0.78 per cent, or 132.27 points, at 16,857.91, recovering nearly 426 points from the day’s low.
At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the 50-stock Nifty index lost 0.89 per cent, or 45.65 points, to close at 5,072.85. The exchange’s volatility index, India VIX, a gauge of traders' perception of near-term risks in the market based on options prices, jumped 21.20 per cent to 34.88, its highest level in nearly two years. India VIX has risen 82 per cent since August 2, the day US President Barack Obama signed a Bill to raise the country's debt limit.(Click here for graph)
The stock market slump has wiped off Rs 6,42,458 crore of investors’ wealth since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised key rates on July 26. Globally, stock market investors have lost $7.8 trillion since then, according to Bloomberg data.(Click here for graph)
“Risk appetite is diminishing very quickly across the world,” said Saurabh Mukherjea, head of equities at Ambit Capital. “By and large, the Sensex will grind towards 16,000 in the next few weeks and may form a base around that level,” he added.
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At Tuesday’s close, the Sensex traded at 13.88 times its estimated earnings for the financial year ending March 31, 2012, lowest since May 2009, Bloomberg data showed.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 2,104.56 crore on Tuesday, provisional data on the BSE website showed, taking their total outflow to Rs 4,211.50 crore ($942.82 million) in this month so far. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors bought shares to the tune of Rs 1,412.96 crore.
“We expect the Indian markets to decline in the next few trading sessions as it is a high Beta market. Therefore, risk aversion will lead to a knee-jerk sell,” Suresh Mahadevan, managing director and head of India equities at UBS Securities, said in a note to clients.
Mahadevan believes Indian stocks are likely to be attractive to foreign investors in the medium to long term due to falling global commodity prices, resulting in the peaking of policy rates, and investors focusing on FY13 earnings from November-December onwards. “India is likely to have more attractive growth prospects versus the developed markets and other emerging markets,” he said.
US shares opened higher on Tuesday, after Monday’s carnage. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading 0.71 per cent higher, while the S&P 500 index was up over 1 per cent at 1920 hrs IST. European markets reversed their earlier losses, following a higher Wall Street opening. The UK’s FTSE 100 was up 0.36 per cent, while France’s CAC 40 was trading 0.90 per cent higher.
In the Mumbai market, gold was trading at Rs 26,000 per 10 gram in the morning. However, it closed Rs 875 higher at Rs 25,805.
Brent oil for September settlement was up $1.72, or 1.7 per cent, at $105.46 a barrel after slipping $5, or 4.8 per cent, to $98.74 on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. It was the first time Brent fell below $100 since February 8.
Among the major losers in the Sensex on Tuesday, Tata Steel lost 4.87 per cent at Rs 486.05, Tata Motors declined 4.33 per cent to Rs 795.55 and TCS fell 4.16 per cent to Rs 967.25. Others like Wipro, Cipla and Infosys also lost over 3 per cent each.
The market breadth was weak, with 2,036 declining stocks compared with 829 stocks that advanced.
Earlier, major Asian markets ended lower, but cut a large part of their losses, amid speculation the US central bank might ease monetary policy further and as state-run funds in South Korea and Taiwan bought shares. Japan’s Nikkei closed down 1.7 per cent after falling more than 4 per cent during the day. South Korea’s Kospi fell 3.6 per cent, paring a loss of as much as 9.9 per cent earlier.