MARKETS JITTERY

Indian equity indices breaching their psychological level have drifted lower to their day's low as doubts whether European leaders could agree on a plan to tackle the euro zone's two-year-old debt crisis at a high-stakes summit on Friday, crept into the mind of finicky investors.  Thus, with big set-piece events looming -- the European Central Bank's final monetary policy meeting of the year on Thursday and the European Union summit on Friday -- investors were unwilling to commit new funds, leaving riskier assets such as commodities and emerging market currencies subdued, which in turn graved the sentiment at Dalal Street.
Local equity markets, lacking any upside trigger, typically replicated the style and pattern of trade at Asia pacific markets, which have edged lower after economic data from Japan and Australia signaled the global economy is slowing. However, US future indices were showing an uptick in the screen trade.
Back on the home turf, although selling was witnessed across the counters, however, investors also awaiting the release of food inflation data preferred to stay on the bay.  However, stocks from CG, Realty and metal remained the weakest spell in trade. 30 share barometer index- Sensex- on BSE plunging over 200 points was oscillating over 16600 levels. Meanwhile, broadly followed 50 share index- Nifty-also knocking off over 50 points was trading sub 5000 mark. The broader indices too after getting an optimistic start plunged in trade. The overall a market breadth indicated weakness as declines thrashed advances in the ratio of 1361:638, while 65 shares remained unchanged.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,664.75, down by 212.31 points or 1.21%. The index has touched a high and low of 16,847.82 and 16,621.24 respectively. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 declining one's on the index.
The broader indices after getting a green start too slipped in red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices declined by 1.24% and 0.88% respectively.
Selling was witnessed across the BSE Sectoral space, however, Capital Goods (CG) down by 2.36%, Realty down by 2.27%, Metal down by 2.13%, Power down by 1.75% and Bankex down by 1.64% topped the list of losers.
The top losers on the Sensex were Sterlite Industries down by 3.83%, DLF down by 3.02%, Jaiprakash Associate down by 2.99%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.88% and Hindalco Industries down by 2.76%.
On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.72%, Wipro up by 0.30%, Cipla up by 0.29%, Tata Power up by 0.26% and  Bajaj Auto up by 0.08% were the top gainers on the index.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has conceded that the country's slowing growth and rising subsidy bill are impacting the fiscal deficit and the Indian economy was in difficult situation. Stubborn inflation, slowing down growth and difficulty in containing fiscal deficit continue to remain the three major areas of concern. But still finance minister said there was no need to 'panic' as the fundamentals were still strong.

Replying to a debate on the second Supplementary Demand for Grants in Lok Sabha to spend a net additional Rs 63,000 crore this fiscal including the net cash outgo of Rs 56,848 crore, in the current fiscal year to end-March 2012, he said that the projection of 9 percent growth during the budget was not a pipe dream, but the unexpected high prices of oil and other commodities coupled with a slowdown in global economies, notably in Europe and the US, had hit the Indian economy hard. He said fertiliser subsidies were likely to increase to Rs 90,000 crore against the budgetary target of Rs 40,000 crore.

In August, the finance minister had asked for additional expenditure of Rs 34,724.50 crore, of which the actual spending or the net cash outgo was a mere Rs 9,016.06 crore, and the balance was to be matched by internal savings.
Pranab Mukherjee said with a headstrong, near-double digit inflation also posing a grave concern. 'This country cannot afford to have more than 5-6 percent of inflation,' by adding further he said, food inflation at 8 percent was very high.
The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,991.65, lower by 70.95 points or 1.40%.  The index has touched a high and low of 5,049.05 and 4,980.45 respectively. There were 7 stocks advancing against 43 declining one's on the index.
The top gainers of the Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 0.86%, PNB up by 0.72%, BPCL up by 0.64%, ITC up by 0.27% and Cipla up by 0.25%.
On the flip side, RCom down by 6.48%, Sterlite Industries down by 3.97%, Sesa Goa down by 3.45%, JP Associate down by 3.34% and Bharti Airtel down by 3.31%, were the major losers on the index.
Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Hang Seng declined 0.67%, Jakarta Composite shrugged off 0.64%, KLSE Composite descended 0.68%, Nikkei 225 knocked off 0.71%, Straits Times plunged 1.61%, and Taiwan Weighted plummeted 1.21%.
On the flip side, Seoul Composite gained and Shanghai Composite were up by 0.10% and 0.45% respectively.