Sensex crashes 601 points on heavy FII selling

Indian markets nosedived over 3.2 per cent at the pre-close session on heavy selling by FIIs as the rupee tumbled to a life-time low of 66.06 amid concerns that the Food Security Bill would raise the subsidy burden.

At 2.57 p.m., the 30-share BSE index Sensex was down 601.17 points (3.24 per cent) at 17,956.96 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 194.10 points (3.54 per cent) at 5,282.40.

Barring IT, all other BSE sectoral indices were trading in the red.

Among them, banking, capital goods, power and PSU indices plunged the most by 5.42 per cent, 4.79 per cent, 4.34 per cent and 3.8 per cent, respectively. On the other hand, IT index was up 0.23 per cent.

Among 30-share Sensex, Sesa Goa (1.64 per cent), Infosys (0.64 per cent), Dr Reddy's (0.6 per cent) and TCS (0.4 per cent) were the only gainers, while the major losers were HDFC (8.35 per cent), HDFC Bank (8.28 per cent), BHEL (8.2 per cent), Jindal Steel (6.03 per cent) and NTPC (5.86 per cent).

The S&P BSE Sensex slipped over 600 points in intra-day trade led by profit-booking in rate-sensitive stocks, metals and FMCG stocks.

The Nifty index too slipped over 3 per cent in intraday trade to mark its worst fall since August 16. The index is now trading below its crucial psychological level of 5,300.

According to brokers, foreign funds remained net sellers as the rupee hit a new record level of 65.94 against the dollar.

They said the passage of the Food Bill in Lok Sabha raised fears that the Government might face more subsidy burden, leading to widening of the current account deficit.

European and Asian stocks were down as US Secretary of State John Kerry said President Barack Obama will hold Syrian Government accountable for using chemical weapons.

But the US durable goods data, which is an indicator of a longer trend, fell for the first time in four months. This gave rise to hopes that the US Federal Reserve will continue its act of pumping $85 billion bond-buying programme to resurrect the economy.

Stoxx 50 fell 43.46 points or 1.54 per cent to 2,777.99, FTSE 100 shed 50.20 points or 0.77 per cent to 6,441.90 and DAX declined 127.17 points or 1.51 per cent to 8,307.98.

Japan's Nikkei fell 93.91 points or 0.69 per cent to 13,542.40, Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 128.30 points or 0.58 per cent to 21,877.00 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 5.81 points or 0.11 per cent at 5,141.22.