The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap down opening on Wednesday with the Sensex falling over 450 points to trade below 60,000-mark and Nifty 50 index dropping below its important psychological level of 17,950 on the back of weak cues from global markets. Asian stock markets were becalmed on Wednesday as surges in oil and Chinese factory prices added to worries that a hot U.S. inflation reading could renew pressure on policymakers to lift interest rates. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan and Japan’s Nikkei each dropped 0.2 per cent in and Overnight on Wall Street a long rally paused, with the Nasdaq logging its first fall in a dozen sessions.As of 9:21 am, the Sensex was down 431 points to 60,003 and Nifty 50 index fell 108 points to 17,936.Overnight, world stock indexes slid on Tuesday, bringing a multi-day rally of record closing highs to a wrap as profit-taking and worries over ongoing inflation fueled a broad selloff.Back home, selling pressure was so intense that all the 15 sector gauges, barring the measures of pharma and healthcare shares, were trading lower. Nifty Bank index was top sectoral laggard with loss of nearly 1 per cent or 321 points. Nifty Private Bank, Realty, Financial Services, FMCG, IT and PSU Bank indices also fell in the range of 0.4-0.9 per cent.Mid- and small-cap shares were also facing selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 index declined 0.2 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 100 index was trading on a flat note with a negative bias.JSW Steel was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 1.64 per cent to Rs 665. HDFC, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Hindalco, SBI Life, Hindustan Unilever, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Asian Paints, Power Grid, IndusInd Bank and State Bank of India also fell between 0.8-1.6 per cent.On the flipside, Mahindra & Mahindra, UPL, Eicher Motors, Cipla, Sun Pharma, Tech Mahindra, ITC and Dr Reddy’s Labs were among the gainers.The overall market breadth was positive as 1,604 shares were advancing while 1,014 were declining on the BSE.
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Strange India 