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The Sensex dropped over 500 points, amid weak Asian cues, with metal shares leading the decline after softening global commodity prices and concerns over slowing demand from China while Tata Motors slumped on worries that the slowdown of its luxury car JLR sales in China could worsen further in wake of the sluggish economy in China.
At 1:40PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 436 points at 27,736 and the 50-share Nifty was down 135 points at 8,376.
In the broader markets, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were down over 1% each. Market breadth weakened further with 1,843 losers and 715 gainers on the BSE.
RUPEE
The Indian rupee continued to trade weak at 63.59 per dollar against previous close of 63.46 due to the dollar’s gain against other currencies overseas while weakness in domestic equities weighed on sentiment.
GLOBAL MARKETS
Chinese stocks witnessed a a sell-off as investors sold blue chips after several companies suspended trading of their stocks. Leveraged investors resorted to selling shares amid margin calls. China's benchmark share index, Shanghai Composite ended down 6.3% while Hang Seng slumped 6.2%. Among others, Straits Times and Nikkei ended down 2-3.2% each.
Meanwhile, European stocks rebounded after Greece was given a new deadline by creditors till Sunday. The DAX, CAC-40 and FTSE-100 were up 0.3-0.9% each.
COMMODITY WATCH
Gold prices slipped below Rs 26,000 mark by falling Rs 51 in futures trade today after the precious metal plunged to over three-month lows in global market.
Copper prices fell close to 5% to $5,339 per tone and are now trading at its lowest since 2009.
Prices of zinc and tin fell 3-4%, while aluminium prices fell closer to 2%.
Silver prices dived Rs 282 to Rs 34,381 per kg in futures trade today as speculators indulged in offloading positions, taking weak cues from global market.
Oil futures fell again on Wednesday as worries over the Greek debt crisis and China's stock market turmoil outweighed an expected U.S. inventory drop, with traders anticipating further drops.
SECTORS & STOCKS
On the sectoral front, all sectoral indices are trading in red with BSE Metal index leading the decline down nearly 4%.
The metal pack has taken a hit in today’s session as Chinese economic slowdown would further lower demand for metals. Vedanta, Hindalco, Tata Steel and Coal India are down between 3-8%.
Shares of Tata Motors have dipped 6.5% on concerns about a slowdown in China, the biggest market of Tata Motors' Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).
Financial stocks declined after a report by UBS said that loans approvals to potentially stressed companies have risen 85% in three years. The report said that Yes Bank, PNB and ICICI Bank have the highest share of loan approvals to potentially stressed companies. The foreign brokerage has downgraded the stock to 'sell' with a price target of Rs 740. Yes Bank slumped nearly 6% while ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and SBI were down 0.8-1.8% each.
The capital Goods stocks are taking a beating ahead of the IIP numbers due to be released on Friday. BHEL and L& T are trading lower by 3% and 1.6% each.
TCS is trading 1% lower ahead of the quarterly results due to be released tomorrow. Following the tandem, Infosys is trading lower by 2%.
Meanwhile, Hindustan Unilever, ONGC, Wipro and Hero MotoCorp were trading 0.3-1.5% higher.
