Market tanks: Will it slip to 5100 before budget?

Domestic investors have got a hit in the chin today. Indian equity benchmarks have got slaughtered in the afternoon trade as the Nifty  touched the 5300-mark - on spike up in crude oil prices above USD 101/barrel on the rising Libya worries.

London brent crude was trading at USD 117/barrel, up 6% and crude oil was trading at USD 102/barrel, up 4% over previous close on New York Mercantile Exchange. Meanwhile, food price jumped 11.49% (WoW) and the fuel price index climbed 12.14% (WoW) in the week ended 12 February.

The 30-share BSE Sensex crashed 442 points to 17,736 and the 50-share NSE Nifty tanked 136 points at 5,301. The broader indices too plunged more than 2% just one hour before the closing.

Technical Analyst Mitesh Thacker says that the market is likely to head towards 5250 or even 5177 which was the recent intermediate low.