Markets end at 15-months low; Sensex down 5 per cent, Bankex dips 7.75 per cent

15 July 2008

Bears completely weighed on markets, which closed at 15-month low. All Sensex and Nifty stocks ended in red. Most beaten down sectors were banking, capital goods, metal, power, realty, pharma and oil & gas. Huge sell off has seen in global markets especially Asian and European markets, which fueled to weak sentiments further. The Sensex and Nifty both hit new 2008 lows in today's session.

Nifty crashed over 204 points to touch an intraday low as well as new 2008 low of 3835.50 and breached earlier low of 3,848.25. It closed with a loss of 178.6 points or 4.42% at 3861.10.

Sensex was down 654.32 points or 4.91% to finish at 12,676.19. It slipped 725.51 points to hit new 2008 low of 12,605 and broken earlier low of 12,810.31.

Amongst frontliners, Ranbaxy Labs fell 14%.01, HDFC Bank -11.26%, ICICI Bank -8.72%, Hindalco -8.30%, Idea Cellular -7.91%, Reliance Comm -7.22% and HDFC -6.86%. 

Main reason behind this negative sentiment across the globe was unstoppable credit crisis in US financial space despite US government's bail out package for mortgage financiers Fannie May and Freddie Mac.

Most banking stocks took huge beating worldwide on fear of more bank failures in the US. There are reports, which suggest that Japan's top 3 banks have exposure of over USD 45 billion in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Reports that UK house-price has declined the most in June.