New Delhi: Fears over the impact of the global financial crisis on the Indian economy escalated on Friday with heavy losses at the stock markets. The Sensex closed with a loss of 800.51 points or 7.07% at 10,527.85.
The Nifty lost 233.7 points or 6.65%, to settle at 3279.95. BSE Midcap slipped 334.48 points or 8.34% at 3,676 and the Small Cap index was down by 343.74 points or 7.31% at 4,355.45.
This has been the worst weekly performance for the Sensex and Nifty ever.
"The fatal fall in the markets today was due to the acceleration of outflows by foreign funds, amid fears of credit crisis in the West," head of research with leading brokerage, Khandelwal Securities Ashok Jainani told IANS.
"This fall was in line with what is happening across the globe. With foreign funds being major players, Indian markets cannot remain insulated from the financial meltdown," Chief Executive of IDBI Capital Nagendra Bhatnagar added.
Each of the 13 sector-specific indices of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) ended in the red, while just two out of 30 scrips that make up the Sensex managed to buck the trend.
India's largest pharmaceuticals company Ranbaxy Laboratories, with a gain of 4.71 percent, and the country's largest commercial bank, the State Bank of India, up 2.27 percent, were the only two Sensex scrips that ended in the positive territory.
Reliance Communications, down as much as 21.02 percent, ICICI Bank, down 19.71 percent and Reliance Infrastructure, down 19.26 percent, led the losers in what analysts termed as a bloodbath in the Indian share markets.
Indian's main equities market, which was not too long ago among the best performers within emerging economies, has shed some 28.20 percent in the past month and 43.58 percent over the past year, data with the BSE showed.
In the past week alone, the 30-share Sensex, often taken as a barometer of the performance of Indian equities, has shed 15.95 percent.
The markets opened very weak on Friday and within minutes into trading, the Sensex had fallen by 1,088.6 points to 10,239.76 points, the single largest intra-day fall since Jan 22, 2008, when it had shed 1,111 points.
Soon after trading commenced on Friday, Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced the formation of a panel under Finance Secretary Arun Ramanathan to study the impact of the global financial turmoil on the Indian economy that will give a report within a year.
This was soon followed by a reduction of 100 basis points in the cash reserve ratio (CRR) for commercial banks to increase liquidity in the markets, which came on the back of a 50 basis points cut that was announced by the central bank Monday.
The markets watchdog also said there was no problem of settlements.
Even as the markets were responding to these interventions, news came that the country's industrial production had grown by a mere 1.3 percent in August and put paid to all positive observations on the robustness of the Indian economy, especially by the finance minister.
Sensex Snapshots:
Friday Open: 10,632.27
Friday Close: 10,527.85
Friday High: 10,904.13
Friday Low: 10,239.76
Previous Close: 11,328.36
Change in points: (-)800.51
Change in percentage: (-)7.07
52 week fall in percentage: (-)43.58
Change of small-cap (percentage): (-)7.31
Change in mid-cap (percentage): (-)8.34
Top gainer: Ranbaxy
Top loser: Reliance Communications
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