Markets plunge deep into the red as Tsunami hits north-eastern Japan

Markets have made further inroads into the negative territory during the previous hour of trade as selling pressure intensified amongst index heavyweights such as RIL, Infosys, L&T, ICICI Bank etc. On the global front, all the Asian markets are trading in the red as a massive earthquake hit the northeast of Japan triggering a tsunami that has caused extensive damage. The quake struck about 250 miles (400km) from Tokyo at a depth of 20 miles, shaking building in the capital for several minutes. The tremor occurred at 14:46 local time (05:46 GMT) and was followed by a series of powerful aftershocks. US index futures too were trading lower taking cues from weak US economic data and simmering tension in middle east, one of the main oil producing regions in the world. Back home, in the BSE sectoral space metal, information technology, auto and power were the major laggards; while fast moving consumer goods and oil & gas were witnessing some buying interest. Broader indices which were see-sawing earlier in the day have plunged deep into the red with the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices loosing around 0.56% and 0.54%, respectively. The market breadth on the BSE was in favour of declines in the ratio of 1550:1037 while 110 scrips remained unchanged. Meanwhile January's IIP data were above market expectations. India's Index for Industrial Production (IIP) has shown smart recovery in the month of January, coming at better than expected 3.7% after hitting a 20-month low of 1.6% in December.

The BSE Sensex tanked 138.79 points or 0.76% at 18,189.19. The index touched a high and a low of 18,368.43 and 18,168.28, respectively.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices declined 0.56% and 0.54%, respectively.

In the BSE sectoral space Metal down 1.63%, TECk down 1.35%, Information Technology (IT) down 1.30%, Auto down 1.02% and Power down 0.99% were the major losers; while Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) up 0.35% and Oil & Gas up 0.03% were the only gainers in the BSE sectoral space.

Meanwhile, the Index for Industrial Production (IIP) has shown smart recovery in the month of January, coming at better than expected 3.7% after hitting a 20-month low of 1.6% in December. Higher exports, Consumer Goods sector growth has helped the ramp up in the numbers. However, December growth has been revised to 2.5%.

As far as internals are concerned the best performers were, Consumer Goods surging to 11.3% from 0.40% (Y-o-Y), Consumer Non Durables returned to positive 6.9% from -7% in the last year, Electricity grew by 10.5% from 5.6%, all other sectors showed decline in the January 2011 compared to same month last year, Capital Goods sector showed the biggest wilt, contracting to -18.6% from 57.9%, Manufacturing declined to 3.3% from 17.9%, Mining declined to 1.6% from 15.9%, Consumer Durables declined to 23.3% from 28.2%, Basic Goods declined to 7.6% to 11.5% while Intermediate Goods declined to 7.9% from 22.2%

The high base effect has negated the growth, as the last January growth was a solid 16.8%. However the other factor is the worsening of the macroeconomic situation. Continuous surge in the crude prices is also threatening to pause the growth cycle and companies are worried about rising cost of funds and input costs.

The top losers on the Sensex were RCom down 3.61%, Sterlite Inds down 2.72%, TCS down 2.44%, BHEL down 2.42% and Bajaj Auto down 2.38%.

On the other hand, ONGC up 2.58%, Tata Power up 0.54%, ITC up 0.41%, Hero Honda up 0.40% and HUL up 0.31% were the only gainers on the index.

India has successfully test-fired its homegrown nuclear-capable Prithvi II and Dhanush missiles from a naval ship off the Orissa coast. While, the Prithvi II surface-to-surface ballistic missile with a range of 350 km was launched from Chandipur, some 230 km from Orissa capital Bhubaneswar; Dhanush, the naval version of Prithvi with the same range, was launched from a naval ship off the Orissa coast. The Dhanush was launched at 10.03 am from a warship that was anchored off the Puri coast.

Prithvi is India's first indigenously built ballistic missile. It is one of the five missiles being developed under India's Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme. The missile, with flight duration of 483 seconds reaching a peak altitude of 43.5 km, has the capability to carry a 500 kg warhead.

Prithvi, which has features to deceive anti-ballistic missiles, uses an advanced inertial guidance system with maneuvering capabilities and reaches its target with a few meters of accuracy.

The S&P CNX Nifty sank 54.20 points or 0.99% at 5440.20. The index touched high of 5502.70 and a low of 5435.20 respectively.

The top gainers on the Nifty were ONGC up 2.39%, Ranbaxy Lab up 1.15%, Hero Honda up 0.31%, ITC up 0.29% and HUL up 0.27%.

On the other hand, RCom down 3.61%, Sterlite Inds down 3.15%, Rel Infra down 2.86%, Rel Capital down 2.80% and TCS down 2.70% were the major losers on the index

The other Asian markets were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite dipped 0.73%, Hang Seng dropped 1.57%, Jakarta Composite shed 1.28%, KLSE Composite slipped 1.16%, Nikkei 225 plunged 1.72%, Straits Times trimmed 1.23%, Seoul Composite declined 1.31% and Taiwan Weighted plummeted 0.87%.

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