Markets crash, Sensex tumbles 1,000 pts as hardening crude oil prices fan inflation fears
Mumbai: The Sensex nosedived over 1,000 points while the Nifty slumped to the 16,200-level on Friday as investors dashed to safer assets as hardening crude oil prices fanned inflation fears and triggered a global sell-off.
With unrelenting foreign fund outflows, the rupee plunged to a fresh lifetime low against the US dollar, further denting sentiment.
The 30-share BSE Sensex opened weak and stayed in the negative territory throughout the session. It finally ended 1,016.84 points or 1.84 per cent lower at 54,303.44.
Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty plunged 276.30 points or 1.68 per cent to 16,201.80.
Investors lost Rs 3.11 lakh crore in Friday's session, with the market capitalisation of all BSE-listed companies falling to Rs 2,51,84,358.86 crore.
Kotak Mahindra Bank was the top loser in the Sensex pack, skidding 3.96 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finance, HDFC, Reliance Industries, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Infosys and Tata Steel.
On the other hand, Asian Paints, Dr Reddy's, UltraTech Cement, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Titan, Maruti, Nestle India and NTPC finished with gains of up to 0.78 per cent.
International oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.45 per cent to 123.62 per barrel.
The basket of crude oil that India buys has hit a decade high of $121 per barrel, but retail selling prices of petrol and diesel continue to remain
frozen.
The Indian basket on June 9 touched $121.28, matching levels seen in February/March 2012, according to data available from the oil ministry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC).
On a weekly basis, the Sensex tumbled 1,465.79 points or 2.63 per cent, while the Nifty lost 382.50 points or 2.31 per cent.
Sector-wise, BSE IT, teck, bankex, finance and oil & gas lost up to 2.09 per cent on Friday, while telecom logged gains.
In the broader markets, the BSE midcap, large-cap and smallcap gauges slipped much as 1.72 per cent.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market, offloading shares worth Rs 1,512.64 crore on Thursday, as per exchange data.
