Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Sensex plunges 467 on weak global sentiment

The equity markets ended Wednesday with the worst performance in four months as panic-stricken investors offloaded stocks amid negative global cues. All the major indices ended in the red during the day. Metals and realty, the worst performers in the current downswing, were the biggest losers shedding 4.1% and 3.9% respectively.

The sensex closed at 16,408.49, down 467.3 points or 2.7%. The index hit an intra-day low of 16,373.32 from an opening level of 16,802.39. The Nifty closed at 4919.65 points, down 146.55 points or 2.8%.

The trend of Nifty maintaining its 200 day moving average (DMA) of 4988 points was broken on Wednesday. "Sentiments are quite weak and traders are hesitating to take long positions," said Kishor P Ostwal, MD, CNI Research, an equities research firm.

With the Nifty closing lower than its long time DMA, many traders triggered stop-loss leading to a correction, he said. The ban on short selling in some government stocks and bonds in Germany resulted in traders pressing the exit button, market observers said.

Stock markets worldwide fell on Wednesday and the euro slid again after Germany announced strict measures to reduce speculation in government bonds and bank stocks. The German financial regulator BaFin announced that it would ban naked short-selling in shares of 10 of the country’s most important financial institutions.

During initial trading in Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 index fell 1%, Germany's DAX index dropped 0.7% and Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average dropped 55.8 points, or 0.5%, to 10,186.8. South Korea's Kospi index lost 0.8% to 1,630. Crude for June delivery was down to $68 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

TOI

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