Sensex closes at 28-month low; cap goods, metals down 3.5%

20 Dec 2011

The market closed at 28-month low on Tuesday after it broke the important technical level of 4550. The fall in index heavyweights in the last hour of trade -- and even considering fall over 1000 points on Sensex since last week -- had investors running for cover.

Moreover, today's fall was despite not-so-bad global markets.

As far as levels are concerned, the Sensex fell 204.26 points, to close at 15,175.08. The Nifty touched an intra-day low of 4,531.15, before ending down 68.90 points at 4,544.20. Its August 21, 2009 closing level was 4,528.80.

It was clear that bears have taken over the Street and have set up camp for good. Experts are turning bearish on India as they feel that macro-economic and government policies can only trigger market now.

Gautam Shah, CMT, VP-Financial Services, JM Financial believes that the Nifty is likely to tank to 4,350-4,400 level as there is further weakness in the market. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, he said that pull backs are likely to fizzle out around 4800-4900 on Nifty. He is expecting the Sensex may find support at 14500.

All sectoral indices slipped barring defensive sector FMCG. Capital goods and metals stocks got slaughtered quite badly; respective indices fell 3.5% each. The BSE Realty, Power, Auto and Bank indices were down 1.7-2.7%.