The glimmer of hope provided by the 111-point gains in the Sensex on Thursday faded in quick time. Europe, which was showing signs of a revival, came off in later trade to end 2% lower and Wall Street crumbled around 4% overnight as concerns regarding the euro-zone's handling of its sovereign debt crises came back to rattle the markets. And as the cause-effect relationship goes, this has had a cascading effect on Dalal Street this morning. The Sensex is quoting at 16238, weaker by 282 points and the Nifty is at 49867, down 79 points in early trades.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 262.70 points, or 2.52 percent, to 10,181.67 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 72.64 points, or 3.16 percent, to 2,225.73. Standard & Poor's 500 lost 30.93 points, or 2.77 percent, to 1,084.12, and is now trading at its lowest level since April 2009. And the Asian markets markets shed between 1% and 3% each in early trades.
All the sectoral indices on the BSE have opened in the red and so is the case with the Sensex-50 stocks. Among individual stocks, Sterlite has weakened by 3.9% at Rs 626, Tata Motors has shed 3.8% at Rs 684 and Jaiprakash Associates has lost 3.8% at Rs 112. Hindalco, Tata Steel and DLF have lost between 3% and 4% each. And index heavyweight Reliance Industries has lost 1.9% a Rs 980.
The weakness is much more pronounced in the larger market space. While the Sensex has shed 1.8% as of now, the midcap index has shed 2.1% at 6624 and the small-cap space has lost 2.3% at 8324. And the market breadth is weak, with one advancing stock behind six declines.
In the mid-cap space, Sobha Developers, Wockhardt and Aban Offshore have lost between 5% and 6% each. And in the small-cap space, Atco Corporation, Kajaria Ceramics and Unity Infraprojects are among the key losers.
And debutant Jaypee Infratech has listed at Rs 98, which amounts to a discount of 4% to its issue price of Rs 102, on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
