Mumbai: Indian equity benchmarks as well as broader markets caught in bear grip Thursday, weighed down by weak global cues and political uncertainty. Profit booking and unwinding of long positions too dented sentiment.
The 30-share BSE Sensex shed gains for the second consecutive session after rising consistently for 1200 points in previous nine sessions. The index declined 146.76 points to close at 18,349.25.
Meanwhile, the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 45.80 points to 5,554.25 due to weakness in banks, capital goods, metals stocks and Reliance Industries.
The market has been more worried over political instability since the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee's decision to withdraw support from UPA government. TMC has been opposing for FDI approval in retail sector and hike in diesel price while the government has ruled out the same.
Though the impact of political turmoil on market has been so far restricted, analysts feel it can be devastating.
Sanjay Sinha, founder of Citrus Advisors is worried that if the government rolls back reforms or there is an election before 2014, it will sink the Sensex to 16,600.
However, at the same time he feels that the government has prepared the market for some more hard measures to take the economy forward. "I think if that happens, the market is surely going to cheer and will rally upwards from even where we are today."
France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE fell 0.6-0.8 per cent on weak economic data. France's manufacturing flash purchasing managers' index declined to 42.6 in September as against 46 in previous month and even services flash PMI dropped to 46.1 versus 49.2 MoM. China's preliminary manufacturing PMI came in at 47.8 in September versus 47.6 MoM.
Back home, index heavyweight Reliance Industries lost 2.7 per cent and housing finance company HDFC was down 1.9 per cent.
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