Sensex tumbles 151 points; Hero, ICICI lead losses

Poor corporate earnings took a toll

The BSE barometer Sensex tumbled by 151 points on Thursday, with ICICI Bank, Hero MotoCorp and SBI leading the losses as a weak rupee, disappointing earnings and negative global cues dampened investor sentiment.

The 30-share Sensex, which opened lower, remained in the negative territory throughout and finally settled at 17,151.19, a fall of 150.72 points or 0.87 per cent, extending the losses for the second day in a row.

Brokers said higher fiscal deficit, rising inflation and lower industrial production data amid a sustained fall in the rupee to more than 4-month low made affected the market sentiment.

Fairwealth Securities Head (Equity) Sharmila Joshi said: “Indian markets opened in the red on Thursday. This was after the US markets had a negative closing yesterday as investor sentiment was hurt due to the weak economic data released by US and Eurozone. Rupee also opened down as worries about India’s twin deficits persist.”

A lack of clear direction amid absence of any positive signal also impacted buying. The weak rupee also exacerbated the fall as investors thought the fall in domestic currency would exert pressure on the economy amid forecasts of further fall in the next 6-12 months.

Selling was widespread that 11 out of 13 sectoral indices closed in the red while only BSE-IT and BSE-Teck ended in the green with auto, metal, banking, PSUs, realty and power segment suffering the most.

Hero MotoCorp was the top loser from the Sensex pack with a fall of 7.69 per cent amid lower-than-expected earnings. Other auto stocks like Tata Motor, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto and M&M also finished with marked losses.

The 50-share Nifty also dipped by 51 points to a 4-week low of 5,188. Contrary to the market sentiment, IT shares attracted good buying support due to fall in the rupee value as a weak domestic currency will boost margins.

On the global front, Asian markets closed weak on Thursday after disappointing data from both sides of the Atlantic rekindled concerns about the strength of the global economic recovery.

Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan ended with minor losses while from China closed with small gains.

Out of the 30-share Sensex pack, 23 scrips finished with losses while only 7 ended with gains.