Sensex, Nifty firmly in clutches of the bears

Mumbai, Aug 6: Markets are sharply in the red, as the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex has shaved off 306.53 points till early afternoon trade at 14,831.87 from it's previous close of 15,138.40, after opening below the psychological barrier of 15,000 at 14,892.60, tracking bearish global markets.

''All the sectoral indices on BSE were trading lower. Information technology (IT) stocks declined on steady Indian rupee against US dollar,'' analysts said.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty has also shed 86.20 points at 4,315.35 from it's previous close of 4401.55 after opening higher at 4,404.05.

So far, the market breadth is weak on the BSE with over 2 losers for every gainer. 1,658 shares have declined as compared to 779 that have advanced, while 53 are still unchanged. The BSE Mid-Cap index is down 1.51 per cent to 6,505.63, while the BSE Small-Cap index lost 1.07 per cent to 7,807.35. The total turnover here is till now is Rs 2,051 crore. Among the Sensex pack 29 pivotals were trading in red, BSE data showed.

''IT stocks declined on steady Indian rupee against the US dollar. The rupee today, reacted sharply to the bearish equity market and moved downwards to 40.48/49 against the US dollar in morning deals. The BSE IT index has slipped 2.14 per cent to 4,603.85,'' analysts said.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, Infosys, Satyam Computers, Hindalco Industries, ICICI Bank, L&T, Reliance Communications, Reliance Industries, SBI and GMR Infrastructure edged lower, while Ranbaxy Laboratories and Fortis Healthcare (FHL) were the early gainers.

Asian stock markets have slumped after downbeat US economic data, including the influential non-farm payrolls report, adding to fears of the US subprime mortgage crisis snowballing further. Japanese shares also were hit hard by declines in exports and strengthening of the yen against the US dollar. Nikkei, Hang Seng, Taiwan Weighted, Straits Times and Seoul Composite are all in the red.

However, Shanghai Composite is up 1.17 per cent to 4,614.31.

Wall Street shares plunged on Friday, after comments from a major investment bank fuelled the market's fears of a widening credit market crunch. The Dow Jones shed 281.18 points to 13,182.15. The Standard&Poor's 500 index dropped 39.14 points to 1,433.06, and the Nasdaq Composite index fell 64.73 points to 2,511.25.

Oil prices fell today in Asia, extending a decline prompted at the close of last week by news of a cooling US job market. Light, sweet crude for September delivery lost 68 cents to USD 74.80 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, midmorning in Singapore.

UNI