Sensex sinks 1624 pts, Nifty ends at 7809 on global turmoil

Moneycontrol Bureau03:30 pm Biggest single day fall in 2015: The market saw the biggest single day fall in 2015. The Sensex crashed 1,624.51 points or 5.94 percent to 25741.56.The Nifty managed to hold 7800 level after hitting day's low of 7769.40. The index fell 490.95 points or 5.92 percent to 7809.The market breadth was pathetic as about 2477 shares declined against 318 shares advanced on the Bombay Stock Exchange.Today's carnage wiped out more than Rs 7 lakh crore market capitalisation.Banks, metals, oil and capital goods stocks crumbled today. Vedanta, GAIL, Tata Steel, ONGC, Reliance Industries and Cairn India were the biggest losers, down 9-15 percent. However, only NMDC closed in green on Nifty 50.03:25 pm Market Expert: Deven Choksey of KR Choksey Investment Managers said, "Currently we are more gripped with fear and as a result of which the larger part of the fall is also due to having a fear factor which is prevalent in the minds of the traders."

"From economic point of view things are not looking as bad, maybe from the market point of view certainly some position unwinding, some amount of hot money pulling out of the system. Those kinds of situation affect us with the sentiment and prices in the market. However, the best thing to do in this kind of a market situation is to stay calm and wait for the opportunity to come at a respective level," he added.03:15 pm Panic selling: The Sensex fell 1,706.31 points or 6.24 percent at 25659.76, and the Nifty was down 509.30 points or 6.14 percent at 7790.65. About 305 shares have advanced, 2485 shares declined, and 54 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

03:10 pm IOC OFS: The offer for sale of Indian Oil Corporation has been subscribed 66 percent so far, reports CNBC-TV18.The issue received bids for 16,01,86,989 shares against issue size of 24,27,95,248 shares.The company intends to sell 10 percent stake in IOC and to garner more than Rs 9,000 crore through this issue.As of June 2015, the government has 68.57 percent stake in company.03:00 pm Market Update: The market remained under pressure as the Sensex dropped 1,486.51 points or 5.43 percent to 25879.56 and the Nifty declined 443.65 points or 5.35 percent to 7856.30.About 271 shares have advanced, 2462 shares declined, and 48 shares are unchanged on the BSE.Only one stock was trading in green in Nifty 50, which was NMDC (up 0.5 percent).02:50 pm Rate cut?: Interest rate cuts should only be delivered after sustained low inflation, and not as "goodies" doled out after public pleading, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said.

"Rate cuts should not be seen as goodies that the RBI gives out stingily after much public pleading," Rajan said in a speech to a banking event.

"Instead, what is important is sustained low inflation," he added. "And rate cuts are a natural consequence that the RBI has no hesitancy in delivering."

The comments come as corporate executives and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is stepping up pressure on the RBI to cut rates as the economy struggles and price rises slow.

The RBI kept its policy rate on hold at 7.25 percent, at its last policy review earlier this month, while leaving the door open to ease further depending on the inflation outlook and how swiftly banks lower their lending rates.02:35 pm FM on market crash: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said there has been a great amount of turbulence in the global markets since last few days. Factors responsible for this are entirely external and not a single domestic factor that has added to it or contributed to it, he added.

"I have no doubt that once these transient factors are over, the markets in India will settle down, restore back. The RBI has already said that it's watching the situation very closely and is conscious of its responsibility on what is to be done under the circumstances," he said.02:20 pm Expert on China: Contrary to perception that China devalued the yuan to boost economic growth, an Edelweiss report suggests the move was aimed at curbing capital outflows. The report argues that despite a stronger yuan, China’s share in world exports had increased and that a 4-5 percent yuan devaluation would hardly have any impact considering weakening of other emerging markets (EMs) currencies. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Nirav Sheth of Edelweiss says:“The fact that the biggest problem that China faces at this point of time is that there are growth pangs in the system."This, he says, can be controlled through monetary policy. “China, for the first time, seems be losing control of its monetary policy that is something that we need to worry about in terms of if China cannot handle the capital outflows,” he saysDiscussing the impact on India, he says rupee depreciating against the dollar would be felt in corporate earnings, especially in industrial and pharmaceutical sectors, he says. Sheth is positive that India will recover soon from the current round of sell-off. “Economic indicators will be better six months down the line,” he added. 02:00 pm Market Check

The market crashed further in afternoon trade with the Sensex falling 1,512.95 points or 5.53 percent to 25853.12. The Nifty breached 7900 for the first time since October 2014, down 473.90 points or 5.71 percent to 7826.05.

The broader markets, too, extended losses as the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices fell over 7 percent. About 275 shares have advanced, 2409 shares declined, and 45 shares are unchanged on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Vedanta, Tata Steel, ONGC, BHEL, GAIL, Bank of Baroda, PNB and YES Bank were the biggest losers, down 8-14 percent.

The rupee also declined further, down 81 paise to 66.64 a dollar.