Sensex down 300 pts; HK, China down on asset bubble worries

At 12.36 hours IST - the Sensex was witnessing huge selling pressure following big slide in Asian markets. Shanghai Composite tanked 5% led by fall in property and steel shares. Chinese government cut gasoline prices. Hang Seng and Straits Times slipped 1.6-2%.

Shares of China Petroleum & Chemical and PetroChina fell in Hong Kong after China unexpectedly cut fuel prices. Sinopec slipped 3% while PetroChina lost 2%.

Realty, metal, telecom, FMCG, power and capital goods stocks were the major losers.

At 12.36 hrs IST, the Sensex was down 330.84 points or 2.16% at 15001.10, and the Nifty was down 102.95 points or 2.26% at 4461.15.

About 843 shares advanced, 1895 shares declined, and 432 shares were unchanged. Only three stocks - TCS, Ranbaxy and PNB were in the green on the Nifty.

In the largecaps, DLF was at Rs 395, down 7.3%; Tata Motors was at Rs 385, down 7.05%; Sterlite Industries was at Rs 611.25, down 7.03%; Reliance Infrastructure was at Rs 1,142, down 5.62%; Tata Steel was at Rs 443, down 5.53% and Unitech was at Rs 89.25, down 6.74%.

All sectoral indices were in the red. The BSE Realty Index tanked 7% and Metal Index fell 6%. Power, FMCG, Capital Goods, Bank, Healthcare and Auto indices were down 2-4%.

On the next page - see how Indian markets performed in the last one hour