Weak global markets trigger a 600-pt fall on Sensex

Mumbai, May 18 (UNI) The BSE Sensex crashed by almost 600 points to 11,618 points this morning around 11:25 hrs as compared to the last close of 12,218 points.

Markets recovered partly and the 30 share sensitive index was down by 455 points at 11,761 points at 1231 hrs.

The big fall of over four per cent in the benchmark index was on the back of losses in the global markets led by lower closing of the US and the Japanese markets on concerns of rising interest rates and inflation.

The New York Stock Exchange(NYSE) Composite index fell by 2.24 per cent, Nasdaq fell by 1.50 per cent, Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 1.88 per cent and Japanese Nikkei fell by 1.30 per cent.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty Index too fell by 186 points or 4.5 per cent to 3448.90 around 1125 hrs and then recovered partly to 3,495 points around 1226 hrs.

The fall was maximum in sectors like Metal, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods, FMCG and Automobiles.

The BSE Metal index was down by 7.16 per cent, BSE Consumer Durable index was down by 7.34 per cent, BSE Oil and Gas index was down by 4.50 per cent, BSE Capital Goods index was down by 5.12 per cent and BSE FMCG index was down by 4 per cent.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices also fell by 4.28 per cent and 4.20 per cent respectively.

The Sensex scrips that fell sharply by more than five per cent were Hindalco, Maruti, ACC, Tata Motors, Gujarat Ambuja Cements, Tata Steel, Grasim Industries, BHEL, SBI, ONGC, Reliance Industries, Larsen&Tobro, Dr Reddy's Lab, and Reliance Energy. All the 30 stocks on the Sensex were in the red.

The stock that were up were led by Adani Exports which was up by 4.99 per cent at Rs 193.45, Asahi India was up by 1.72 per cent at Rs 97.65 and Voltas was up by 1.24 per cent at Rs 1,018.

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