NIFTY CRACKS 8000 LEVEL

Wiping out yesterday's sharp gains, the NSE Nifty plunged to eight-month low on across-the-board selling by losing 159.10 points and settled below 8,000-level. Earlier, the bourses opened positive on a sharp fall in Current Account Deficit (CAD), but soon drained the momentary firmness following volatility witnessing huge selling pressure amid late monsoon worries as well as caution over key macro data -- IIP and CPI -- to be be released tomorrow. Sectorally, PSU banks fell 2.69 per cent, followed by realty (2.45 pc), auto (2.41 pc), bank (2.28 pc), energy (2.27 pc), financials (2.21 pc), infra (2.22 pc), IT (1.53 pc), pharma (1.47 pc) and metal (1.28 pc). The broader market also saw unwinding as mid-cap fell 2.28 per cent and small-cap dropped 1.74 per cent. Elsewhere, Asian markets closed higher tracking overnight gains in the US markets. The broader 50-share barometer opened higher at 8,157.30 and traded between 8,163.05 and 7,958.25 before finishing at 7,965.35, a fall of 159.10 points or 1.96 per cent. Stock-wise the major losers were Tata Power (5.21 pc), Idea (4.56 pc), Asian Paints (4.16 pc), Kotak Bank (4.02 pc), Bosch (3.84 pc), Tata Motors (3.67 pc), Yes Bank (3.46 pc), RIL (3.16 pc), Axis Bank (3.14 pc) and SBI (2.53 pc). Meanwhile, foreign investors sold shares worth Rs 482.11 crore yesterday. Turnover in the cash segment rose to Rs 15,405.69 crore compared with Rs 13,509.87 yesterday. A total of 8,198 lakh shares changed hands in 68,96,028 trades and the total market capitalisation of the NSE stood at Rs 94,13,420.40 crore.