Sensex drops 329 pts; metal stocks in demand

The key equity benchmarks tumbled in mid-morning trade. After hitting the day`s high of 15,400.40, Nifty slipped near the 15,250 mark. Metal shares witnessed some bit of bargain buying after declining in the past two sessions.

At 11:29 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 328.88 points or 0.64% to 51,166.91. The Nifty 50 index fell 106.15 points or 0.69% to 15,254.45.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index slipped 0.80% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 0.93%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On the BSE, 866 shares rose and 2251 shares fell. A total of 117 shares were unchanged.

Fears loomed across markets that the rising attempts of central banks to curb inflation would lead to a slowdown in global economic growth and could possibly lead to a recession.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Metal index advanced 0.97% to 4,767.30. The index had declined 5.92% in the past two sessions.

Welspun Corp (up 3.77%), Jindal Steel & Power (up 3.11%), Steel Authority of India (up 2.83%), Jindal Stainless (up 2.76%) and Tata Steel (up 2.3%) were the top index gainers.

Concurrently, JSW Steel (up 2.05%), NMDC (up 1.76%), Hindustan Copper (up 1.68%), Adani Enterprises (up 1.23%) and Vedanta (up 0.84%) edged higher.

On the other hand, APL Apollo Tubes (down 1.69%), Ratnamani Metals & Tubes (down 0.78%) and Hindustan Zinc (down 0.53%) edged lower.

Global markets:

Asian stocks are trading lower on Friday, following sharp declines on Wall Street as investors weigh the possibility of aggressive monetary policy tightening leading to a recession.

The Bank of Japan is set to release its monetary policy statement on Friday. The Bank of Japan is likely to maintain ultra-low interest rates and stress its resolve to support a fragile economy with massive stimulus.

US stock indexes closed sharply lower on Thursday in a broad sell-off as recession fears grew following moves by central banks around the globe to stamp out rising inflation after the Federal Reserve`s largest rate hike since 1994.

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