Concerns over the Chinese economy shrinking led to a wave of selling in the US and European markets yesterday that spread to the Asian markets this morning.
The Indian bourses, displaying a weak trend since the beginning today, have tumbled with the Sensex losses hovering around 180 points, with only a handful of Sensex stocks in the green.
The US Dow Jones index shed 175 points yesterday and all the three major European markets England’s FTSE, France’s CAC and Germany’s DAX ended in the red.
This had an impact this morning when the Asian markets opened with the Japanese Nikkei and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng being major losers. The Straits Times index of Singapore was also in the red.
The weakness in global markets stemmed from reports that the factory output in China might weaken, sparking apprehensions of the Chinese economy cooling off.
TCS shares were trading at Rs 2,276, a gain of Rs 21.85 and Wipro was up by Rs 6.30 at Rs 584.70. NTPC, Hindalco, Coal India were the other stocks in positive territory albeit marginally. RIL remained unchanged at Rs 866.05.
The rest of the BSE Sensex stocks were sporting red. Among the biggest losers were L&T , which had put up a smart show yesterday, after its better-than-expected results. But today, the stock shed Rs 20.95 to slip to Rs 1,012.05, ICICI Bank was down to Rs 1,060.60, a loss of Rs 19.10, Tata Steel shed Rs 9.45 to trade at Rs 379.70, Tata Motors lost Rs 10.35 to trade at Rs 372.65, BHEL was down to Rs 166.05, a loss of Rs 4.85 and Sesa Sterlite shed Rs 6.50 to trade at Rs 202.35.
The Indian rupee turned weak against the greenback, losing 25 paise to quote at Rs 62.18 against the US currency.