Sensex plummets 318 points to 19-month low after global worries

The BSE Sensex ended 1.28% down on Friday with the NSE Nifty followed the same path, closing 1.31% lower. The mid-cap index, the outperformer of recent times, fell sharper to close 2.68% down.

All sector indices ended in the red, except IT and Energy. Bank and automobile indices fell the most.

Consumption of fuel, a proxy for oil demand, grew 8.3% in December, compared to the same month in the previous year. It provided some momentum to energy stocks. Among those, BPCL and RIL led the gains, and rose 2.78% and 1.13%, respectively.

The rupee fell further to 67.69 a dollar. On the positive side, it shored up the IT stocks. Infosys led the pack with the most gains, and closed 1.02% higher.

Pharma company Wockhardt and Jindal Steel were the top losers. The first fell 14.98% and the second 11.59%.

In overseas stock markets, Chinese stocks led the decline in Asian equities. The Shanghai Composite index ended 3.55% lower and the Hang Seng 1.5%. Japan’s NIKKEI 225 closed 0.54% down.

The European markets are at the moment in the red with France doing the worst; the CAC 40 was trading lower at 3.06%. UK’s FTSE 100 was 1.88% down.

Hindustan Unilever shares slid 2.7% after touching its 52-week low of Rs. 771 on Friday on poor Q3 results. The FMCG major announced 22% fall in its net profit figures to Rs 971.40 crore for quarter ended December.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises was down 3.37% after announcing its December quarter results. Its consolidated net profit fell 10.89% to Rs 275 crore.

The coming week will be packed with major results such as Wipro on January 18, RIL on January 19, HCL Technologies on January 20, Idea on January 21, and ITC on January 22. These results will influence the way of the stock markets.