Blood bath on Dalal Street, Sensex ends over 1,000 points down

MUMBAI: The Indian equities market ended the week on a weak note due to heavy sell-off in the IT stocks, leading to Sensex falling over 1,000 points and Nifty closing over 300 points down, on concerns of global recession.

At the close, Sensex ended 1093.22 points, or 1.82 per cent, down at 58,840.79, and Nifty closed 346.55 points, or 1.94 per cent, down at 17,530.85. As many as 2,514 shares declined, 991 advanced and 105 remained unchanged.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindra, Ultratech Cement, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and Nestle India were major losers on the Sensex.

Nifty IT index closed 1,027.90 points, or 3.71 per cent, down at 26,706, Nifty FMCG ended 848.95 points, or 1.93 per cent, down at 43,192.65, and BSE Cons Durables closed 1,008.57 points, or 2.34 per cent, down at 42,145.75.

"Indian Markets today finally chose to mirror global cues after out-performing global peers in the recent past. Weaker domestic flows for last month despite SIPs maintaining their run rate led to profit taking as all sectoral indices ended in the red. As global investors brace for a further interest rate hike post the US inflation data released recently, the RBI too has its task cut out in India when they meet at the end of this month," said S. Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP securities.

Among sectors, realty, IT, oil & gas, consumer durables, and auto indices fell the most even as all sectors ended in the red.

Global stock markets followed Wall Street lower on Friday after higher-than-expected US inflation dashed hopes the Federal Reserve might ease off more interest rate hikes, amid growing concerns of a global recession following warnings from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Pound sterling, which has been one of the worst performing major currencies this year, fell 0.8 per cent to $1.137 against the dollar in the aftermath of the release - its lowest level since 1985.

"On weekly charts, Nifty has formed a bearish Dark Cloud Cover. 17,401 and 17,170 are the next levels on the downside that may provide temporary support. On upmoves, 17,771 may be difficult to breach in the near term," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.