The markets continue to be under pressure, albeit off the lows of the day, as the nervousness on the global front has shown no signs of abating. The Sensex has recouped about 100 points from the day's lows and is currently quoting at 16,819, weaker by 266 points and the Nifty is at 5,056, down 82 points. The midcap index is at 6153, down 40 points and the smallcap index is at 6864, down 33 points.
The benchmark indices had witnessed a gap-down opening as the decline in US stocks and euro on Wednesday dampened sentiment post a buoyant session on Wednesday. They slid further from thereon to retrace all the gains of the previous session before recouping some of their losses in the late-noon session. But the markets are not out of the dumps as yet in what is turning out into an unnervingly volatile week of trade.
The cause for the latest slump is the fading optimism that European leaders will make substantial progress on resolving the euro zone debt crisis at their summit meeting this weekend. The Federal Reserve's Beige Book report suggesting the US economic outlook was barely growing in September also affected sentiment. The Dow ended down 75 points and Nasdaq was down 54 points, just enough to send the Asian bourses into a tizzy of sorts. Hang Seng and Seoul shed around 2% each, while the Shanghai, Nikkei and Taiwan lost about a percent each. There was no solace from the European front either, with the FTSE, CAC and DAX down about a per cent each. Sure enough, the ripple effect manifested itself on the markets back home.
Financials stocks are seeing a reversal in fortunes after the stellar gains on Wednesday. HDFC has weakened by 4.1% at Rs 645, ICICI Bank has shed 3.1% at Rs 876 and HDFC Bank has lost 0.8% at Rs 487. Jaiprakash Associates, DLF and Sterlite are the other major losers.And index heavyweight RIL has slid by 1.8% at Rs 827.
The stocks to buck the trend include Sun Pharma (strengthened by 1.2% at Rs 488), Bharti Airtel (higher by 0.8% at Rs 388) and Maruti (up 0.6% at Rs 1072).
The market breadth is weak. Out of 2771 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 988 advancing stocks as against 1666 declines.
