Sensex slips 2.8% on global cues, exports dip

If Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget hit market sentiments on Monday, bad news from the US and paucity of foreign funds continued to pull indices down today. Union Trade Minister Anand Sharma’s statement in Parliament, that June exports had fallen 29 per cent, did not help.

The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index, or Sensex, plunged 401.30 points — 2.83 per cent — to 13,769.15. The Nifty slumped 123.25 points — 2.93 per cent — to 4,078.90.

Foreign funds have put in just $211.4 million this month after net purchases of close to $8 billion between mid-March and mid-June, when the benchmark index almost doubled. Today, foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs 828.01 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors were net buyers of Rs 599.07 crore.

Earlier, talk of a new stimulus package by the US government to revive the economy led to a steep fall in stock market indices. The Nasdaq and Dow Jones fell to a 10-week low — the first shed 2.31 per cent and the second 1.94 per cent.

Asian markets reflected this mood. Many of them closed down almost a per cent. The Nikkei fell 2.35 per cent because of drop in demand for Japanese machinery.

“Indian markets' weakness cannot be attributed to the Budget alone. Global markets, which had rallied earlier, are on a downslide as well,” said Amitabh Chakraborty, head (equities), Religare Securities.

The market breadth was quite narrow — 3,103 stocks fell while 712 rose and 64 stocks stayed put. All the sector-specific indices fell, with realty, capital goods, metals and banks all down between 4 and 8.5 per cent.