India's benchmark index crashes over 900 points

Mumbai, March 3, Hardnews: In spite of Finance Minister P Chidambaram's assurance that there was no cause for worry, the Indian equity markets plunged deeply. The market opened in red this morning.
IANS reports that Investors made heavy sales in major stocks like HDFC, Bharat Heavy Electricals, State Bank of India and Reliance Capital Ltd.

At 3.30 p.m., the 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which had opened at 17,227.56 points, tumbled to a low of 16,651.85 points. It lost 926.87 points or 5.27 percent.

The BSE Midcap index, which opened at 7,622.76 points, went down by 289.68 points to a low of 7,379.96 or by 3.77 percent.

The BSE Smallcap index, which opened at 9,591.22 points, went down by 364.66 at 9,263.47 points or 3.79 percent.

On BSE, the market breadth was extremely negative with low trading volumes. A total of 374 shares advanced, 2,325 shares declined and 37 shares remained unchanged.

Earlier in the day, Chidambaram had said the fall in Indian stock markets reflected what was happening globally and there was not much cause for worry as India's growth stock was intact.

"The Asian markets have slipped today (Monday) because of the fears of a recession in the US. And what is happening in India only shows that we are not as decoupled as we may think we are," he said.

"I don't think we need to worry too much about that. This is reflecting what is happening in the world market," he added, after the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened with a loss of 360 points.