Pain continues: Sensex plunges 450 points as Nikkei, Hang Seng crash

Domestic equity market sentiment once again turned extremely bearish as a steep fall in other Asian indices, including Nikkei and Hang Seng, sent local investors running for cover. As Japan’s Nikkei tanked more than 1,000 points and China’s Hang Seng slipped over 900 points from their respective day’s high, investors back home pressed the panic button that pushed the Sensex to the day’s low of 25,299.02, down 443 points. At 12 pm, the 30-share BSE S&P Sensex was quoted at 25,363.37, down 378.19 points, or 1.5 percent. Similarly, the broader 50-stock CNX Nifty was at 7,686.15, down 122.85 points, or 1.6 percent. [caption id=“attachment_2406772” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Among other Asian gauges, China Shanghai Composite index crumbled 6.1 percent, Japan’s Nikkei dropped 4 percent and Hang Seng was down 0.1 percent.  Market breadth continued to sink in favour of losers, with 2,027 stocks declining against 356 advances on BSE. With markets taking further plunge, the volatility index or VIX appreciated further by 15 percent to 32.35, signs that nervousness among investors remain high and would resort to selling at the slightest of any negative news. Investors dumped pharma, IT, automobile, capital goods and power shares, as a sluggish Chinese economy coupled with worries of a deficient rainfall back home and a lacklustre first quarter earnings further pushed the markets in the red. In view of fresh selling pressure, shares of several index heavyweights such as BHEL slumped 5.8 percent to Rs 216.30, Lupin dropped 4.2 percent to Rs 1,727.50, Maruti faltered 3.8 percent to Rs 4,090.50, Bharti Airtel shed 3.7 percent to Rs 336.30, Sun Pharma dipped 3.7 percent to Rs 857.90 and Infosys was down 3.4 percent at Rs 1,055.20. Other laggards such as Vedanta, Cipla, L&T, Hindalco, Dr Reddy’s, HeroMoto Corp, HDFC and Wipro were down over 1.50-3 percent.