Sensex, Nifty continue to bleed; midcaps fall sharply

Moneycontrol Bureau11:50 am PSU Banks fall:  Shares of PSU banks continue to fall dragging the Bank Nifty sharply on Friday. Morgan Stanley is underweight on all public sector banks except Bank of Baroda and says this is an opportunity to sell. The brokerage sees a 30 percent downside as it thinks other PSU banks (except BoB) face sustained low profitability and weak balance sheets.

Morgan Stanley warns that commodity price declines will hurt asset quality materially as PSU banks have fairly high exposure to this area and hence earnings per share (EPS) revisions may continue to be downward and stocks should remain weak.

Unimpressed by Indradhanush, government's seven-pronged strategy for bank's survival, Morgan Stanley thinks it is not enough for the banks to make proper provisions and start growing.

11:30 am Rupee outlook: Nowithstanding the rupee's relative outperformance, the slide will conitnue a bit more in tandom with its emerging market peers, says Ju Wang of HSBC. She forecasts year end target for rupee at 66 per dollar and can go all the way down to 67 per dollar next year. "We do not think China has joined the currency per se, but the fact that it is now allowing the market force to play a bigger role in deciding the currency’s move definitely has removed hindrances to the currency for the Asian foreign exchange stabilities including emerging markets stabilities. So, that is why markets react very negatively towards emerging markets in general now," she adds.Don't miss: CLSA sees 30% downside in BPCL, euphoria on crude fall misplaced

The market continues to bleed with the Nifty below 8250. The 50-share index is down 120.70 points or 1.4 percent at 8252.05. The Sensex is down 398.86 points or 1.4 percent at 27208.96. About 436 shares have advanced, 1789 shares declined, and 65 shares are unchanged.

Midcaps see sharp losses with the likes of Mastek, Motherson Sumi, Central Bank seeing pressure.  Vedanta, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, GAIL and SBI are among major losers while Infosys, Sun Pharma, Lupin, TCS and HUL are top gainers.

Rupee falls further testing 66 levels. Oil is headed for its eighth straight weekly decline in Asia, as sharp falls in equities added to worries lacklustre global economic growth will hurt energy demand in an oversupplied market. 

Asian shares fell continuing a global sell-off in equities that hit Wall Street overnight and saw the Dow reach its lowest level this year as concerns about the health of the world economy snowballed.

Analysts fear a slowdown in China, the world's second-biggest economy, could drag on global growth and curb energy demand bad news for oil prices at a time when markets are already oversupplied with crude.