Nifty ends below 2700; Metal, Bank indices dip over 4 per cent

02 Mar 2009

Markets have witnessed huge selling pressure and have fallen in sync with the global markets. Relentless selling was seen in banking, metal, capital goods, power and telecom stocks.

The 30-share BSE Sensex has hit an intraday low of 8,563.52, before closing the day at 8,607.08, down 3.2% or 284.53 points. The 50-share NSE Nifty shed 89.05 points or down 3.22%, to 2674.60, after touching a low of 2659.55. The Nifty March futures ended with 45.6 points discount.

Market breadth has widened its gap and was in favour of declined throughout the session. About 969 shares advanced while 1918 shares declined. Nearly 159 shares remained unchanged.

Heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, NTPC, TCS, Reliance Communication, SBI, HDFC Bank, SAIL and L&T were biggest contributors to this fall. However, only M&M closed in green with 2.6% gain.

At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets were trading sharply lower. FTSE went down 120 points, to 3,709. CAC was trading at 2,625, down 77 points and DAX was at 3,730, down 113 points.

US futures were also under pressure; Dow Jones Futures was trading at 6,953, down 99 points and Nasdaq Futures was at 1,100, down 17 points.

Asian markets closed weak barring Shanghai. Hang Seng, Nikkei, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan slipped 2.9-4.16%. However, Shanghai gained 0.51%.