The markets continued the down slide for the second straight session on Friday with the BSE benchmark Sensex shedding 136 points on heavy sell off by funds following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s surprise decision to hike interest rate on emergency loans to banks.
Tracking Asian markets, which plunged on the Fed move, the Sensex tumbled 173 points in opening trade and extended the losses further to touch a low of 16,074.58, before ending the day 136.21 points down, or 0.83 per cent at 16,191.63.
The sell off was so wide-spread that all the BSE sectoral indices, barring healtchare, ended in the deep red with losses up to 3.37 per cent. The interest-sensitive reality index bore the brunt with a 3.37-per cent battering.
Similarly, the wide-based NSE index Nifty 50 opened 68.65 points down and closed with 42.85 points loss at 4,844.90 after touching a low of 4,805.55 intra-day.
Brokers said the markets turned jittery following the meltdown on the Asian bourses which lost up to 2.60 per cent due to a knee-jerk reaction to the sudden 75 basis points hike in the discount rates by the US Federal Reserve, triggering all-round selling by funds and retail investors.
They said, however, bargain buying at the fag-end in select counters, helped trim early heavy losses.
The index heavy-weight Reliance shed 1.32 per cent to Rs 984.25, while Infosys moved down by 0.26 per cent to Rs 2,528.
Both together have 23 per cent weight on the Sensex.
