Nifty closes below 3100 on weak global cues; Metal dips 8 per cent

22 October 2008

The market has snapped two days of gain. It has fallen in line with global cues. The profit booking was majorly seen in metal, realty, banking, oil and telecom stocks. Midcap and small cap stocks were also under pressure. The Nifty has closed below 3100 mark, after struggling at that level for major part of the day.

Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, SBI, ONGC, Reliance Communication, ICICI Bank, Cairn India, SAIL L&T, Infosys and Tata Steel were major contributors to this fall.

The Sensex lost 513.49 points or 4.81%, to settle at 10,169.90. The NSE Nifty Fifty closed at lowest level since July 26, 2006. It went down 169.75 points or 5.25%, to end the day at 3065.15.

Devesh Kumar, Managing Director of Centrum Capital said that the market may not bounce in a hurry. He sees a range of plus-minus 1000 points for the market. Kumar added that market looks attractive for investment with 1–2 year horizon. He said export-oriented and auto-component companies may see pain.

Kumar further said that FY09 will reflect impact of tightening liquidity, and that one should expect earnings to build again in FY10.

The Moody's has downgraded the Tata Steel outlook to negative from stable. This downgrade change led by outlook change for Tata Steel UK. It has changed outlook for Corus to negative from stable. On account of this, the share price of Tata Steel fell over 12% and touched new 52-week low of 238.30.