Sensex at 3-week low, slips 478 points on oil rates, weak global mkt

The BSE Sensex tumbled 478 points to 3-week low of 17,445.75 today, as stock markets slipped hard on rising crude oil prices, igniting investor worries that it will fuel inflation and dampen chances of interest rate cuts.

Sensex logged steepest one-day fall in over 5-months, falling fourth day in a row -- losing nearly 1,000 points and erasing Rs 24,000 crore in investor wealth in the process.

Global markets were weak as the Brent crude oil and the New York crude oil reached nearly 10-month highs of USD 125 a barrel on concerns over supply disruptions from Iran due to sanctions over its nuclear programme.

In all, 12 of the 13 sectoral indices closed with losses of up to 5.29%. Only BSE-FMCG index ended in the green because of rise in the ITC stock. Besides, 28 of the 30 BSE Sensex scrips closed in the red.

Interest-rate sensitive banking and realty stocks led the declines on investor worries that oil price pressures on inflation could make it difficult for the Reserve Bank to lower key lending rates. India imports over 80% of its crude oil requirements.

RIL and Infosys - with 20% weight on the index -dropped 4.77% and by 2.32%.

Sensex touched a high of 17,975.19 on open but then started the downfall till the end to close at 17,445.75, losing 477.82 points or 2.67%.

Similarly, the NSE 50-scrip index Nifty dropped 148.10 points, or 2.73% to 5,281.20 as most of the front-runner stocks fell.

"There was bloodbath on Dalal Street with aggressive all-round selling. The sentiment has been dampened after Brent crude oil rallied to nearly 10-month high of USD 125 per barrel. Global markets declined as well on concerns over Greece debt crisis," said Rikesh Parikh, VP Equities, Motilal Oswal Securities.

Drop in ICICI Bank, Infosys, L&T, SBI, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, HDFC, M&M, Hero MotoCorp, BHEL, Jindal Steel, TCS and Tata Motors erased over 300 points from the Sensex.

Globally, key Asian markets fell by up to 1.42%. European markets too were weak in the afternoon deals, amid lingering concerns over Greek financial bailout and overall persistence of the euro-zone debt crisis. Key indices in Germany (DAX), France (CAC) and the UK (FTSE) were down by up to 1.24%.

Other Sensex losers were Tata Steel (7.03%), Hero MotoC (6.62%), Hindalco Ind (5.35%), DLF (5%), Jindal Steel (4.93%), BHEL (4.88%), ICICI (4.80%), M&M (4.61%), SBI (3.70%), L&T (3.62%), Tata Power (3.53%), Bajaj Auto (3.18%), Wipro (3.04%), Sterlite (2.53%), Infosys (2.32%), Maruti (2.29%), HDFC Bank (2.14%), Tata Motors (2.02%) HDFC (1.84%) and NT% (1.53%).

The market breadth continued with the negative trend as 2,210 stocks ended with losses, while 649 finished with gains. The total turnover dropped further to Rs 2,550.63 crore from Rs 2,900.11 crore on last Friday.