The continuous slide in the Chinese stock markets and the stalemate in the Greece debt talks dampened investor sentiments leading to a barometer index of the Indian equity markets shedding 368 points on Wednesday.
The benchmark 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) dropped by 367.98 points or 1.31 percent during the late-afternoon session.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also trading deep in the red. It plunged 116 points or 1.36 percent at 8,394.90 points.
The Sensex, which opened at 28,031.45 points, was trading at 27,803.71 points (at 2.30 p.m.) in the late-afternoon session -- down 367.98 points or 1.31 percent from the previous day's close at 28,171.69 points.
The Sensex has so far touched a high of 28,031.45 points and a low of 27,635.78 points in the intra-day trade.
Analysts said the downward trajectory in the Indian markets was due to the spill-over effect from the continuous slide in the Chinese stocks markets and the stalemate regarding the Greek debt talks.
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"The continuous slide in the Chinese markets since sometime now has caused a downfall of nearly 40 percent. The inability of the government, fund houses and brokerage firms in arresting the fall has caused international panic," Anand James, co-head, technical research desk, Geojit BNP Paribas told IANS.
"Indian markets have been anxious about the Chinese stock markets crash. Coupled with this, the stalemate in the Greek debt crisis has subdued investor confidence here," James said.
He elaborated that the strong macroeconomic fundamentals in terms of growth, inflation, current account and fiscal deficits provides a reasonable degree of resilience to the Indian financial system.
He predicted that the next major triggers for the markets will be the upcoming first quarter results and the key macro-economic data scheduled to be released on Friday.
"There is a hope that the first quarter (Q1) numbers due to be released soon will be better than the Q4 of 2014-15. Factors like lower inflation, easing of monetary policy and stable rupee are expected to be translated into better Q1 numbers," James added.
The first major result to come out will be of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on July 9.
During Wednesday's intra-day trade, all 12 sector-based indices of the BSE were trading in the red.
The S&P BSE automobile, metal, bank, information technology (IT), capital goods, consumer durables, healthcare, oil and gas and technology, entertainment and media (TECK) stocks came under intense selling pressure.
The S&P BSE automobile index plunged by 339.98 points, metal index crashed by 322.11 points, bank index plummeted by 283.06 points, IT index contracted by 108.88 points, and capital goods index receded by 74.93 points.
The S&P BSE consumer durables index fell by 59.97 points, followed by healthcare index which decreased by 56.51 points, oil and gas index which declined by 55.15 points and TECK index slid 54.66 points.