Nifty cracks to 19-mth low as exports wallow, tanks 87 pts

Fragile macroeconomic outlook on the back of tumbling exports and corporate earnings concerns amid mounting global jitters triggered a widespread panic sell-off on the Indian bourses today.
The benchmark Nifty tumbled by 87 points to close below the psychological 7,400 mark on the National Stock Exchange.
With sentiment already dented by China-induced economic slowdown in Asia, the massive dip in country's exports in the backdrop of soft domestic-demand, sent shockwaves for the markets and anxiety among investors.
India's exports contracted for a 13th month in a row, dipping about 15 per cent in December to USD 22.2 billion amid a global demand slowdown even as imports plunged 3.88 per cent to USD 33.9 billions previous year, widening trade deficit to USD 11.6 billion in December as against USD 9.1 billion in the year-ago period.

Despite a brief recovery in mid-morning trade, equities succumbed to panic unwinding as renewed bout of risk-aversion gripped markets after the European equities pared early gains and turned lower.
Moreover, heavy unwinding from domestic players ahead of RIL's December quarter earnings tomorrow also impacted trade.

The 50-share Nifty opened at 7,420.35 and swung between 7,463.65 and 7,336.40 before ending at 7,351, a steep plunge of 86.80 points or 1.17 per cent - the level not seen since May 30, 2014.
Meanwhile, Brent crude crashed below USD 28 a barrel for the first time since 2003 on supply fears from Iran after sanctions linked to its nuclear programme were lifted, hitting domestic energy stocks badly.

Among the domestic sectors, energy and resources stocks had another tough day, falling 3.70 per cent. It was followed by realty (3.68 pc), media (2.73 per cent), infra (1.70 pc), PSU banks (1.66 per cent), auto (1.49 per cent), pharma (1.45 per cent), Nifty bank (1.22 per cent), metal (1.08 per cent) and FMCG (0.46 per cent).
Mid-cap and small-cap stocks were severely battered with both the indices losing over 3 per cent.
Major laggards were RIL, HDFC Bank, HDFC, L&T, Asian Paints, Infosys, SBI, IndusInd Bank, ONGC, Bajaj Auto, Cipla, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank and Bharti Airtel.
TCS, ITC, BHEL, HUL, Tata Steel, Wipro and Ultratech were among the few gainers.

Turnover in cash segment rose to Rs 18,381.85 crore from Rs 17,547.65 crore on Friday. A total of 10,960.37 lakh shares changed hands in 86,57,849 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 89,47,415 crore.