Sensex plunges 250 points on heavy FII selling; Realty, power stocks trip

The Sensex and Nifty were trading down by about 1.2 per cent due to heavy FII selling owing to negative global cues.

At 1.23 p.m., the 30-share BSE index Sensex was down 249.62 points (1.2 per cent) at 20,615.35 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 76.4 points (0.87 per cent) at 6,126.40.

All BSE sectoral indices were trading in the red. Among them, realty and power indices fell the most by 2.34 per cent and 1.72 per cent, respectively, followed by auto 1.59 per cent and oil & gas 1.35 per cent.

GAIL, Cipla, SBI, Cipla, ICICI Bank and SSLT were the top five Sensex gainers, while the top five losers were Wipro, NTPC, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Sun Pharma.

A Religare Institutional Research report on India’s macroeconomics said that “growth conditions have been worsening, with rising inflationary pressures as the RBI keeps interest rates high. We believe the central bank will maintain a pause on the repo in its October 29th policy meet, but do not rule out the possibility of a rate hike in the December credit meeting. Separately, last week’s MSP hikes for rabi crops are lower for FY'15. Wheat, a major rabi crop, has seen only a 3.7 per cent rise, much lower than its six-year average of about 11 per cent, as inflation remains stubbornly high.”

European stocks fell from a five-year high as investors remained cautious ahead of euro zone consumer confidence data to be released later today.

Stoxx 50 was down 25.84 points or 0.85 per cent at 3,019.93, FTSE 100 shed 28.56 points or 0.43 per cent to 6,667.10 and DAX fell 36.72 points or 0.41 per cent to 8,910.74.

Asian stocks were down as Chinese money market rates surged, while the Australian dollar reversed gains and commodities dropped.

Japan's Nikkei plunged 287.20 points or 1.95 per cent to 14,426, Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 129.33 points or 0.55 per cent to 23,186.70 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 17.05 points or 0.32 per cent at 5,356.10.