Markets saw a low opening with weak signals from the Asian markets. The 30-components of the Sensex are on the lower side with Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Infosys, HDFC and Bharti among the major slackers.
BSE 30-share Sensex was low 209 points and Nifty was low 64 points at 10:00 am (IST).
Nikkei Index was down at 2.8% 8,025. The Hang Seng index was down 3% at 12,938. Shanghai index slipped 1.3% at 1,959.
Westpac Banking Corp., BHP Billiton declined by over 5%, plummeted 5.5%, Elpida Memory Inc fell over 7%.
Asian markets pitched in the early trades driven by commodity and banking stocks after RBS Group Plc’s forecast of the hugest loss in U.K.
Australia’s S&P/ASX was dipped to 3.2% and Taiwan Taiex index slipped 2.7% at 4,249 while Straits Times was down 2.3% at 1,706.
Japan’s demand for services dropped for the month of November due to the serious slowdown. The tertiary index dropped 0.9% from October.
The UK’s FTSE 100 index ended 0.9% while Germany’s DAX 30 index dipped 1.2% and the French CAC-40 index dropped 0.9%.
An inundation of what are likely to be mostly awful corporate results and new reports on the state of the housing market will keep US market on tenterhooks. Profits at S&P 500 companies are now likely to have stumbled 20.2% in the fourth quarter of last year from the year-ago period, according to Thomson Financial.
European banks’ shares also dropped stridently. Lloyds Banking Group dropped 33.9% on the first day of trading after the union of Lloyds TSB and HBOS. Credit Suisse shares dipped 6.7% and HSBC shares declined 6.5%. Barclays, which had a good beginning to the session, dropped 10.2%. Deutsche Bank shares dropped 10.6%. BNP Paribas shares fell 5.7%.Societe Generale shares dropped 10.3%.