Stocks continued their downtrend for the second straight day, led by key front-line heavyweights, amid gloomy overseas cues as the benchmark Nifty shed 22 points on the National Stock Exchange(NSE).
An overnight sell-off in industrial commodities worldwide trade spooked by global growth worries mainly rattled investor sentiment across Asia and major emerging markets, triggering massive unwinding in equities.
Citing disappointing economic recovery prospects in the Eurozone and other key economies, the World Bank lowered its global growth forecast to 3 per cent for this year from an earlier estimate of 3.4 per cent.
Copper prices plunged to their lowest level in almost six years, driven by aggressive selling in China, while extending losses alongside a sell-off in other commodities.
Bourses witnessed high volatility throughout the day as key indices pared back their early sharp losses in afternoon to trade briefly in positive zone before drifting back once again towards the fag-end.
However, the fall was limited due to expectations of an early interest rate cut due to easing inflationary pressures.
After opening marginally up at 8,307.25, the broader 50-share index oscillated widely between a high of 8,326.45 and low 8,236.65 before settling at 8,277.55, showing a loss of 21.85 points, or 0.26 per cent.
Sectorally, CNX metal suffered their worst day, tumbling 3.49 per cent, impacted by global commodity turmoil. It was followed by healthcare, energy, FMCG, financials and realty.
However, technology and auto withstood selling pressure.
Mining and resources related companies saw heavy selling with Sesa Sterlite crumbling by 8.06 per cent along with Hindalco (6.30 per cent), Tata Steel (3.74 per cent), NMDC (1.70 per cent) and Jindal Steel (1.28 per cent).
Other big index laggards included ITC, Reliance, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, Wipro, Axis Bank, M&M, BPCL, Indusind, PNB, HDFC, Cipla, NTPC, Lupin and Dr Reddys.
Infosys, HUL, TCS, Ultratech, BHEL, ONGC, Maruti, Bajaj Auto, Tech Mahindra, Asian Paints, ACC, Ambuja Cements, Tata Motors, Grasim and Hero Moto were among the smart movers.
Turnover in the cash segment fell to Rs 16,478.59 crore from Rs 16,945.63 crore yesterday. A total of 7,843.33 lakh shares changed hands in 75,04,236 trades and the market capitalisation stood at Rs 96,36,712 crore.
