The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now.

    Sensex plunges 700 points as weak economic data spooks investors; Nifty below 19,550

    Synopsis

    Among the Sensex stocks, Tata Steel, L&T, JSW Steel, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC Bank, TCS, and Tata Motors opened lower, while only Reliance Industries and Asian Paints opened higher.

    Sensex falls 300 points as weak economic data triggers caution; Nifty below 19,650ETMarkets.com
    Tracking negative cues from global peers, Indian equity indices traded in the red on Wednesday after weak economic data from the US, eurozone and China triggered caution and weighed on risk sentiment.

    The BSE Sensex was trading 693 points or 1.04% lower at 65,765. Nifty50 was trading at 19,527, down 206 points or 1.05% at around 11.08 am.

    Among the Sensex stocks, Tata Steel, L&T, JSW Steel, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC Bank, TCS, and Tata Motors opened lower, while only Reliance Industries and Asian Paints opened higher.

    Shares of Sula Vineyards opened 6% lower after the firm received a notice of Rs 115.8 crore excise duty from the Maharashtra excise department. The company said the order does not affect the existing business.

    Hero MotoCorp opened 3% lower after its total sales fell to 391,310 units in July, as against 445,580 units in the same month last year. The company said incessant rains and floods caused crop damage in several states and also resulted in a sharp decline in customer footfalls at the dealerships.

    On the sectoral front, Nifty Metal dropped 0.95%, and Nifty PSU Bank fell 0.74%. Nifty Financial Services and Nifty IT also opened lower. In the broader market, Nifty Midcap 100 fell 0.48%, and Nifty Smallcap 100 plunged 0.11%.

    Experts Take
    "The major news after market close yesterday is the rating agency Fitch’s downgrade of US sovereign rating from AAA to AA+. This has impacted bond and currency markets with the US 10-year yield rising above 4%," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

    "The impact on the stock markets is likely to be negative but not large since the US economy is now headed for a soft landing and not a recession, as markets feared earlier," Vijayakumar added.

    Om Mehra, Equity Research Analyst at Choice Broking, said, "Technically, the Nifty has critical support around 19650, as the Index is forming Higher Lows in hourly charts. Option writing data is dominated by the call writers which indicate a Negative sentiment. Banking stocks could remain in focus as if it could support the benchmark Indices."

    Global Markets
    Wall Street stocks ended mostly lower on Tuesday amid a slew of corporate earnings results, while manufacturing sector data supported hopes that the central bank could skip another rate hike in September.

    The S&P 500 fell 0.3% Tuesday, coming off its fifth straight winning month. The Dow was up 0.2%, and the Nasdaq was 0.4% lower.

    Asian shares dipped Wednesday after Wall Street took a step back from its big rally as markets tried to digest a slew of earnings.

    Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 dove 1.8% in morning trading, and South Korea's Kospi slid 1.1%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 1.5%, while the Shanghai Composite lost 0.5%.

    FII/DII tracker
    Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold Rs 92.85 crore worth of shares on a net basis on Tuesday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased Rs 1,036 crore of equities, as per provisional NSE data.

    Oil prices rise

    Oil prices surged by almost 1% on Wednesday, trading near their highest since April, as crude and fuel products inventory data showing robust demand from the world's biggest fuel consumer, the US, offset demand concerns elsewhere.

    Brent crude futures for October rose 76 cents, or 0.90%, to $85.67 a barrel. Likewise, US West Texas Intermediate crude for September climbed 76 cents, or 0.93%, to $82.13 a barrel.

    Rupee decline
    The Indian rupee declined 18 paise to $82.40 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday on the back of a decline in Asian currencies and weak risk appetite after rating agency Fitch cut the US credit rating.

    (With inputs from agencies)

    (Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)



    (What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips, Budget 2024 and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .)

    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today.

    Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price

    ...more


    (What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips, Budget 2024 and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .)

    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today.

    Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price

    ...more
    The Economic Times

    Stories you might be interested in