10:00AM New York, 7:30PM Mumbai – Sensex plunged to its third worst one day loss on near 4% sell-off in Asia.

Sensex in Mumbai trading plunged 615.22 or 3.96% to 14,935.77 level. Other indexes in the region fell between 4% and 3% during the session. Taiwan, Korea, and India led the decliners in the region. Stock trading in the session jumped to 6,267 crore rupees from 5,298 crore rupees a day ago.

In the broader market 2,147 stocks declined, 533 advanced, 41 were unchanged.

Among Sensex stocks ACC cratered 9.6% to 958 rupees on heavy volume. Reliance Energy lost 7% and Manhindra & Mahindra declined 4.8%.

Tata Motors dropped 4.65% to 666.80 rupees. Bajaj Motors lost 2.8% to 2,295 on the news that July sales dropped 7% from a year ago to 185,890 units. Maruti Suzuki India reported 18% rise in July sales to 52,839

Hindalco Industries lost 6.4% to 159 rupees after the company reported first quarter proft of 602 crore rupees, flat from a year ago and on revenue gain of 9%. The company sold 4,677.9 crore rupees of metal and metal products in the quarter.

Real estate stocks, subject of market speculation saw some air off the market valuations. Indiabulls Real Estate and Orbit Corporation plunged 9%, Unitech declined 7.3%, DLF lost 4%, and Mahindra Gesco fell 5%.

Consumer sector stocks that are supposed to withstand this kind of market declines fell as well. Hindustan Lever dropped 2.5%, Cipla fell 3%, ITC lost 2.2%.

Bank stocks fell a day after the Reserve Bank of India hiked the reserve ratio for bank deposits to 7%. Union Bank fell 9%, Bank of India lost 8%, and Allahabad Bank fell 6.5%.

Everonn Systems prices 4 million (40 lakhs) stocks at 245 rupees. The initial public offering jumped to 560 rupees before closing at 478.50 rupees with a premium of 242%. The offering was oversubscribed by 131 times propelling the stocks in the stratospheric level.

Jai Corp board of directors approved the foreign investor limit to 49% and agreed to split stock.


09:45AM Wall Street opened flat, reflecting credit markets concerns and strong earnings.

Wall Street opened flat, as investors weighed up a new hit to the credit markets and some strong earnings reports. On Tuesday worries about home loan defaults renewed when American Home Mortgage Investment (AHM) reported troubles with its credit lines.

Bear Stearns (BSC) built on these concerns Wednesday as it is likely to face losses in July in its Asset-Backed Securities Fund after closing other two hedge funds recently. The stock dropped 1.8%.

On the earnings news front, Mastercard (MA) slipped 11.5%, despite posting better-than-expected results. The world''s No. 2 credit card franchise said it swung to a profit in Q2 from a loss last year, due to higher card usage and weaker dollar. Mastercard posted profit if $1.43 a share vs. a loss of $2.30 per share a year ago, exceeding expectations of $1.3. Kraft Foods (KFT) lost 0.8% although its Q2 profit rose 4%.

In the first hour of trading, the Dow fell 31.95, or 0.24% to 13,180.04 after being up more than 50 points earlier. The Standard & Poor''s 500 index fell 3.91, or 0.27%, to 1,451.36, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 13.29, or 0.52%, to 2,532.98.


9:00AM U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower opening, hurt by credit markets and funds.

U.S. stock futures reversed from steeper lows early Wednesday but continued indicating weak opening. The troubled credit market was in the spotlight again, alongside with funds exposed to that market and lending banks. Worries about U.S. home loan defaults affected not only Wall Street, but spread throughout global markets too.