Sensex below 16000, Nifty at 4790; rupee falls to 52/$

With rupee breaching the 52/USD mark, the stock market sentiment has been bruised further. The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 387 points to below 16000 at 15984.42 and the 50-share NSE Nifty crashed 118 points to 4,788. Global environment, which has been the key reason for today's capitulation, has shown no signs of reversing the trend. France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE tumbled 2-3% while the Dow Jones futures lost 138 points.

Not a single sector was in the green; the BSE Metal Index plunged 3.5%. Bank, Realty, Auto, Power and Oil & Gas indices tanked 2.6-3%. Capital Goods, IT, Pharma and FMCG lost 1-2%.

Tata Motors, BHEL, ICICI Bank and Sterlite Industries were down 4.55% each. Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Infosys, TCS, SBI, ONGC, Bharti and Tata Steel dropped 2-3%. However, Maruti and Sun Pharma were only gainers.

The broader indices extended losses too; the BSE Midcap and Smallcap fell 1.7% each. Even the market breadth weakened; about three shares declined for every share rising on the National Stock Exchange.

At 14:18 hours IST : Sensex crashes 350 pts, Nifty touches 4800 as Europe falls

Indian equity benchmark Sensex has not seen any recovery since morning; in fact it slipped further following a fall of 1.5-2% in the European markets. The Dow Jones futures too lost 152 points. The 30-share BSE Sensex touched the one-and-half months low today; falling 350 points to 16,021 and the 50-share NSE Nifty tumbled 107 points to 4,798.