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Benchmark indices closed with heavy losses, declining over 3% each, as investors turned risk averse on sustained fall in crude oil prices implying weakness in global demand and concerns over political uncertainty in Greece.
Provisionally, the 30-share Sensex ended down 870 points at 26,972 and the 50-share Nifty closed down 258 points at 8,120.
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(updated at 3:11 PM)
Benchmark indices have extended losses and are heading towards their worst single-day fall since September 2013 when the rupee crisis had rattled the markets.
At 15:11PM, The 30-share Sensex was down 903 points at 26,939 and the 50-share Nifty was down 266 points at 8,113.
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(Updated at 2:27PM)
Benchmark indices have extended losses and are heading towards their worst single-day fall since September 2013 when the rupee crisis had rattled the markets.
Across the globe, equity markets have declined on sustained fall in global crude prices implying weakness in global demand and concerns over political uncertainty in Greece.
At 2:27PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 725 points at 27,118 and the 50-share Nifty was down 210 points at 8,168.
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices have performed marginally better than the front-liners with losses of around 1.6% each. Market breadth in BSE is heavily negative with 2,018 declines against 724 advances.
Oil prices slumped to new 5-1/2-year lows on Monday on worries about a surplus of global supplies and lacklustre demand. The two crude oil benchmarks - Brent and U.S. light crude, also known as West Texas Intermediate - have now lost more than half of their value since mid-2014.
Globally traders also turned risk averse over apprehensions of Greece defaulting on its loans and losing its status as a Euro zone country which became more pronounced with the leftist Syriza party, committed to roll back austerity measures, emerging as the front-runner for the January 25 election.
Domestic factors too weighed on sentiments as analysts expect the BSE Sensex companies to report a flat net income growth on a year on year basis in the third quarter with metals and real estate companies pulling down the earnings of Corporate India.
India's HSBC PMI for services was down to 51.1 points in December against 52.6 points in November. Though, the services sector has shown growth since October when the PMI reading was 50, indicating stagnation, the pace was slower in December compared to the preceding month.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 472 crore on Monday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
Buzzing Stocks
All the 12 sectoral indices are in red. BSE Oil & Gas index, down 2.8% followed by BSE Realty index, down 2.6%. BSE Metal index, down 2.4% and BSE IT index, down 2.1%. BSE FMCG index, down 0.7% has lost the least.
HUL is the sole major gainer in the Sensex and has gained over 1% after Deutsche bank upgraded the stock to "buy" from "hold."
Coal India is marginally high by 0.1%. Trade unions today began a five-day coal industry strike, terming it as the biggest industrial action for any sector since 1977.
Bank stocks have remained under pressure on the absence of any significant reform centric announcements during the two-day banking conclave which was held in Pune and attended by Prime Minister, RBI Governor and top officials from the banking and insurance sector.
Mortgage lender HDFC has declined the most among financials and is down by 3.2%. ICICI Bank has lost around 3%. Axis Bank has lost over 2% while SBI is down around 1.5%.
Metal stocks are under pressure. Hindalco, Sesa Sterlite and Tata Steel have lost around 1.4% to 3.3%.
Oil shares are under pressure as crude oil prices plunged to fresh 5-1/2-year lows on rising concerns about a surplus of global supplies and lacklustre demand. GAIL, RIL and ONGC have lost around 2.6% to 3.7%.
Bharti Airtel has lost around 1% on concerns about the cost of acquiring mobile phone airwaves at the government auction as the Union Cabinet on Monday finalised the reserve prices for the 800-, 900- and 1,800-MHz telecom spectrum bands and said the 2,100-MHz band would be auctioned simultaneously with the other bands in February.
