STOCK MARKET WATCH - Thursday, 22 March 2012

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46. Indian Stocks Plunge Most in Asia Amid Global Sell-Off

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-22/indian-stocks-drop-on-deficit-concern-reliance-retreats.html

Indian stocks tumbled the most in Asia after manufacturing contracted in China and Europe, the South Asian nation’s biggest trading partner, and as the rupee weakened to a two-month low.

Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), the nation’s largest company, sank the most in three weeks. Bharti Airtel Ltd. (BHARTI), the biggest cell-phone operator, slid 2.7 percent. State Bank of India, the biggest lender, lost 3.2 percent. The rupee weakened past 51 a dollar for the first time since Jan. 17.

The BSE India Sensitive Index (SENSEX), or Sensex, sank 2.3 percent to 17,196.47 at the close. European manufacturing fell to 47.7 as factory output unexpectedly shrank in Germany and France, according to Markit Economics. A preliminary measure of Chinese manufacturing slid to 48.1 in March, a four-month low, based on data from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index retreated 1 percent at 6:23 p.m. in Mumbai and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index dropped 0.4 percent.

“I don’t think the fall has got anything do with India specific; it’s a global selloff,” Saurabh Mukherjea, director of institutional equities at Ambit Capital Pvt. in Mumbai, told Bloomberg UTV today. “The last couple of weeks haven’t been good for India. Neither the budget nor the state elections have worked out the way the markets would have liked. In that context, a growth scare from China isn’t the best news for us.”