Global sell-off spooks market, Sensex tanks over 300 points

A massive sell-off in the global markets created panic on Dalal Street this morning with the Sensex tanking over 300 points and the Nifty trading below 6150 in morning trade.

The markets world over seem to be in turmoil. Emerging markets have been at the receiving end especially last week since Argentina withdrew support to peso resulting in a sharp devaluation of the currency. Other emerging market currencies including the rupee followed suit on the downside. Slower economic growth in China had hurt sentiment earlier this month. Country-specific issues be it economic mismanagement in Argentina or political instability in Turkey are hurting investor sentiment.

This morning Asian shares took a beating and the yen raced to a seven-week high against the dollar, as emerging markets remained under pressure with the US Federal Reserve poised to continue tapering its stimulus and tighter credit conditions in China raising fears of a slowdown.

The Dow fell 2% on Friday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 2.1% and Nasdaq was down 2.2%.

Expectations of continued stimulus withdrawal by the US Federal Reserve added to the market’s gloom.

According to experts, Raghuram Rajan’s’ comments on inflation, Fed meet and expiry of January derivatives contracts on Thursday may continue to weigh on Indian shares this week.

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan’s comments last week oninflation dashed hopes of a rate cut in this week’s monetarypolicy review.

Marketmen said that Rajan’s comment that inflation was a"destructive disease" killed rate cut hopes.

At 9:17 am, the BSE Sensex was down306 points at 20826 while the Nifty was down 94 points at 6172.

Banking stocks are the worst hit - Yes Bank is down 5.5 percent, Bank of India down 5.2 pct, IndusInd down 4.3 pct, Canara Bank down over 4 pct and ICICI is down 3.7 percent.

Stocks in news

Ranbaxy continued its free fall. The stock was down 5.89 percent today afterUSFDA banned Ranbaxy’s Toansa API plant from supplying drugs to the US.

Brokerage UBS has a sell rating on Ranbaxy. According to the brokerage,downside risk continues to be high after FDA bans drugs from the Toansa facility in Punjab. “There is uncertainty around Ranbaxy’s first to file (FTF) drugs. Cut target to Rs 300 from Rs 500,” it said.

Tata Motors opened 3 percent lower. The company’sManagingDirector Karl Slym died on Sunday after falling from the 22ndfloor of a five-star hotel in Bangkok, where he had goneto attend a board meeting of the company’s Thailand arm.

Results today: HUL and Idea Cellular

Meanwhile, the rupee opened at 62.88 but the levels improved to 62.79 soon after.