Sensex falls over 283 points on global turmoil

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex dropped more than 1 per cent on Monday, as global risk assets sold off after elections in Greece and France fuelled questions on their austerity policies. The weaker rupee and uncertainty in a day when the Finance Bill containing the controversial provisions is set to be introduced to the parliament also weighed.

The Asian markets were down Monday morning. Hang Seng, Taiwan Weighted and Nikkei tanked 2.5 per cent while Straits Times and Kospi were down 1.8 per cent. The BSE benchmark was down 283 points or 1.68 per cent to 16,548 and the NSE benchmark slipped 89 points or 1.75 per cent to 4,997.75.

JP Associates crashed 6 per cent after the Himachal Pradesh High Court has put a fine of Rs 1 billion and ordered not to set-up 62MW CPP.

Banks stocks took big knock today, with the Bank Nifty falling over 2.5 per cent. State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Bank of Baroda were down over 3 per cent.

Reliance Infrastructure, L&T, Hindalco, BHEL, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, IDFC, Infosys and DLF dropped 2-3 per cent.

Even FMCG (defensive sector) stocks like HUL and ITC declined 0.5 per cent each.
However, Cipla and ONGC outperformed other largecaps.

Oil marketing companies like HPCL, IOC and BPCL gained 0.5-1.5 per cent as crude fell 4 per cent yesterday.

The CNX Midcap was down 124 points or 1.7 per cent to 7,091. About six shares declined for every share gaining on the National Stock Exchange.

In the second line shares, Allahabad Bank was down over 8 per cent. Syndicate Bank, UCO Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and United Bank of India slipped 4-7 per cent.

HDIL, Delta Corp, Unitech , IRB Infra, TTK Prestige, VIP and Educomp Solutions too tanked 4-8 per cent.