Markets end in red for the third day straight

New Delhi: Markets took a nosedive and completely shattered in Thursday’s trade as heavyweights have dragged benchmark indices lower. This is the third straight day that indices have been under pressure and they have lost all Monday’s gains. Oil and gas, power, realty, capital goods, telecom and banking stocks are real culprits for this fall.

Out markets have also taken a cue from global markets as credit concerns are not over yet in the US financial space. Asian and European markets also got burnt.

Sheshadri Bharatan of Dawnay Day AV Financial Services said the market is taking its cues from the global markets and added that the impact of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout is yet to be felt in the credit system and the US markets. He sees the support for Nifty at 4,250 at this point in time.

Reliance Industries has played a significant role in Thursday’s fall. It closed below Rs 2000 for the first time since July 16. The stock fell 4.13 per cent, to settle at Rs 1997.60 while it slipped over 16 per cent since August 16, 2008. Reliance lost over Rs 1,88,000 crore in its market cap. It added nearly 50 points to this fall.

Bharatan feels the Reliance stock at around the Rs 2,000 level is a good buy.

Other draggers include Bharti Airtel, ONGC, ICICI Bank and L&T, which fell 4.4 per cent, 3.82 per cent, 2.01 per cent and 1.82 per cent, respectively.

The Sensex plunged by 338.32 points or 2.31 per cent, to settle at 14,324.29 and the Nifty ended below 4300 mark. It fell 109.95 points or 2.5 per cent, to end at 4,290.30. Only two stocks out of Sensex 30 and Nifty 50 managed to finish in green.

Among the frontrunners, Suzlon Energy crashed 6.68 per cent, HCL Technologies -4.59 per cent, Zee Entertainment -4.57 per cent, Bharti Airtel -4.40 per cent, Reliance Infrastructure -4.15 per cent, Reliance Industries -4.13 per cent, ONGC -3.82 per cent and Tata Power -3.53 per cent. However, Tata Motors, Ranbaxy Labs and PNG were gainers.

Indian rupee has depreciated over 1 per cent to 45.57 to a dollar.

Sanju Verma, Executive Director at HDFC Securities expects rupee not to fall below 46-47 to a dollar.

Peter Redward, Head of Rates Research for Emerging Asia, Barclays Capital said that if the dollar continues to strengthen, then rupee may touch 47- 47.50 to a dollar by year-end. He feels that the RBI may lag behind the other Asian Central Banks with respect to monetary policy easing.

She feels that once regulatory risk comes down, markets will inch up to 4600 levels. She expects markets to break 4500-4600 levels on positive news. She said that Indian markets outperformed most of the global markets for the last two months.