(RTTNews) - Thursday, the Indian market has come off its low, although still trading sharply lower, on bargain hunting and support from domestic funds. Traders ignored the efforts taken by the government and the regulators amid the bearish sentiment prevailing in the rest of the global markets due to concerns over a prolonged global economic recession. Meanwhile, the rupee is also trading lower on worries about foreign funds outflows due to the sluggishness in the stock market. The rupee was last trading at 49.00/15 against the dollar compared to its Wednesday's close of 48.52/54.
After opening sharply lower at 10,285, the BSE Sensex has recouped some of its loss in early trading. The index is currently trading at 10,332, down 477 points or 4.41%, while the S&P CNX Nifty is trading at 3,197, down 4.23%. The mid-cap index and the broad-based BSE 500 index are down more than 4% each and the small-cap index is slipping 3.86%.
On the BSE, the market breadth is fairly negative, with only 240 stocks gaining compared to 1520 stocks trading in the red. Stocks across sectors are declining sharply. Oil/gas, realty, metal and consumer durable goods stocks are the major losers.
However, Hindustan Petroleum (up 2.50%), Gujarat NRE Coke (up 2.26%), Hindustan Unilever (up 1.75%), Chennai Petroleum (up 0.95%) followed by Indian Bank, Dr Reddys Laboratories, Kotak Bank and Bajaj Auto are trading higher.
Banks, realty and other sectors sensitive to interest rates such as capital goods are trading sharply lower, even as the RBI reduced the CRR by 100 basis points, releasing Rs.40, 000 crore into the banking system. To end the liquidity crunch, the RBI has also allowed banks to borrow an additional 0.5% of their net demand and time liabilities using their SLR holdings as collateral under the LAF to meet liquidity requirements of mutual funds.
