Indian markets join Asian peers' downslide

Sensex, Nifty join Asian peers to end below 200-DMA; BSE, NSE benchmark's down nearly 10% each from 2010 high.

In one of the most telling days since the European crisis, markets worldwide ended on a dismal note today. The day started with negative cues from the US markets coupled with Germany banning naked short sales. The Germany move most analysts believe could backfire as it would drain funds away from the euro zone and increase risk aversion. The euro too hit a fresh four-year low amid in today's trade.

Among the prominent Asian markets, the Nikkei and Shanghai ended with marginal losses on the back of late recovery. While the former shed 56 points at 10,187, the latter was down just seven points at 2,588. Hang Seng ended with a loss of 366 points at 19,579. All three indexes are below their respective 200-DMA (Daily Moving Averages).

Today, our markets too broke below its 200-DMA. After a soft start, the Nifty struggled around the 200-DMA of 4990, before tanking in the second half of the day. As usual, the European markets bore a major impact on our markets. As soon they extended losses our markets too fell in tandem. The Nifty tumbled to a low of 4908 and finally settled (provisional) at 4920, down 147 points. In the process, the index has shed 9.7% from its calendar year high of 5,400 touched in April.

Meanwhile, as of 1530 hrs, the FTSE 100 too was trading below its 200-DMA at 5177, down 130 points. The 200-DMA of FTSE is at 5283.

The BSE benchmark index, the Sensex, slumped to a low of 16,373, and settled with a loss of 467 points at 16,408 as against its 200-DMA at 16,732. The index had touched a high of 18,048.

Selling was seen across sectors, as all of them ended in red. The BSE Metal index bore the brunt of the selling, and was down over 4% at 14,913. The Realty index and Bankex too shed almost 4% each.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were down around 2.5% each at 6,780 and 8,588, respectively.

Gived the bearish scenario, declines outnumbered advances on the BSE by wide margin. Out of 2,918 stocks traded, 2,186 declined and 654 advanced today.

INDEX SHAKERS...

Tata Motors, Sterlite and ICICI Bank led the losers list, with losses in excess of 7% each to Rs 715, Rs 638 and Rs 825, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra slumped 6% to Rs 527. Reliance Communications and Jaiprakash Associates plunged 5.5% each to Rs 137 and RS 121, respectively.

Hindalco tumbled 4% to Rs 156. Tata Steel, DLF, ITC and Reliance Infrastructure shed around 3.5% each.

Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, SBI, Grasim, HDFC, TCS, ACC, Reliance and ONGC were down 2-3% each.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

ICICI Bank topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 202.73 crore followed by Piramal Healthcare (Rs 192 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 172 crore), debutant Mandhana Industries (Rs 146.40 crore) and SBI (Rs 126.70 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 12.57 million shares. It was followed by Birla Power (12.40 million), Mandhana Industries (10.88 million), Tarapur Transformers (9.16 million) and Take Solutions (7.35 million).