By IANS,
Mumbai : Concerned over growing fears of a recession in the US, Indian equities opened sharply lower Thursday in tandem with other global peers for the second day in succession.
The market appeared to have completely ignored moves by India’s central bank and the finance ministry to infuse heavy doses of liquidity into the system by again cutting the cash reserve ratio and by compensating banks to the extent of Rs.250 billion for the waiver of farm loans.
The sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened on a weak note at 10,284.90 points, over the previous close at 10,809.12 points, and soon fell further to 10,150.54 points.
About an hour into trading, the index made a small recovery and was ruling at 10,335.10 points, with a loss of 474.02 points, or 4.39 percent, over Tuesday’s close.
All the 13 sector-specific indices were in the red, while only two scrips out of 30 that go into the Sensex basket managed to stay afloat. Reliance Industries led the fall, down 8.92 percent, while Tata Consultancy followed next, down 8.59 percent.
At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader S&P CNX Nifty index was down 4.67 percent at 3,182.35 points.
The government and the central bank had Wednesday taken further steps to ease the flow of credit, with as much as Rs.650 billion ($15.5 billion) released to address the prevailing financial crunch, which was welcomed by industry.