Sensex Slumps 509 Points, Nifty Gives Up 11,300 As Selloff Deepens

Stock markets plunged for the second straight day, with the BSE Sensex falling 509 points to close at 37,413 on Tuesday. The losses in the domestic markets came amid weakness in Asian peers amid concerns on the US-China trade front. NSE benchmark index Nifty declined 150 points to settle at 11,287. A selloff across sectors along with the rupee's plunge to a fresh life-time low dragged the indices lower. Forty four stocks on the 50-scrip Nifty index finished lower. Tata Steel, Tata Motors, ITC, Power Grid, Hero MotoCorp and Tech Mahindra, closing around 2-4 per cent lower, were among the top laggards on the Nifty 50.

Both benchmark indices registered their worst closing levels since August 2.

The NSE's sectoral indices of banking, auto, FMCG, metals, energy and pharma stocks finished the day with losses of at least 1 per cent each. The overall breadth of the market was sharply negative, with 1,282 stocks on the NSE closing lower against 468 that rose.

Tuesday marked a second day of selloff across the board. While the Sensex lost 976 points, the Nifty gave up 301 points - marking a cumulative loss of around 2.5 per cent on the indices in two days.

AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital, attributed the fall in the markets to extended rupee depreciation and expensive valuations. The market has been in a highly overbought zone and is now re-adjusting itself, he told NDTV.

Mr Prabhakar said he expects the Nifty to come down to 11,000 levels in next 1-2 weeks.

"The market will continue to remain under pressure for some time, likely until the end of the week, as it is already over-stretched," news agency Reuters quoted RK Gupta, managing director, Taurus Asset Management, as saying.

The rupee on Tuesday plunged further to hit a fresh lifetime low of 72.73 against the dollar, in line with Asian peers amid fears of an escalated trade war between the US and China, the world's two largest economies.

China will ask the World Trade Organization next week for permission to impose sanctions on the United States, for Washington's non-compliance with a ruling in a dispute over US dumping duties that China initiated in 2013, a meeting agenda showed on Tuesday.

Rupee depreciation coupled with soaring crude oil prices continued to fuel current account deficit-related concerns, say analysts.

Asian shares were struggling to avoid a ninth straight session of losses, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.15 per cent.

Fund outflows also added to woes of the markets.

Net sale of equities by foreign institutional investors (FII) and domestic institutional investors stood at Rs 841.68 crore and Rs 289.66 crore on Monday respectively, data from the NSE showed.

The Sensex and Nifty had shed 1.3 per cent on Monday.

(With agency inputs)