US fiscal cliff fears, EU crisis push Indian indices to two-month low
Indian benchmark indices declined nearly 1% in the last hour of the trade on Friday to a two-month low as investors grew more averse to Indian equities ahead of the US’ fiscal cliff' talks. US President Barack Obama and congressional leaders were scheduled to meet at the White House late on Friday to discuss spending cuts and tax hikes on the wealthy to stop the US economy from going back into recession.
The 17-nation euro zone tipped into recession in the third quarter (July-September), with the economy shrinking 0.1% from the second quarter (April-June), official data showed on Thursday. In the second quarter, the euro zone economy had contracted 0.2%.
The Sensex ended the day at 18,309.37, down 162 points or 0.88% from Thursday’s close, while the broader Nifty settled at 5,574.05, down 56.95 points or 1.01% from the previous close, led by sharp falls in realty, banking and automobile stocks. The pessimism was reflected in broader markets, too, with the BSE midcap index falling 0.9% to end at 6,658.33 and the BSE smallcap declining 1.13% to end at 7,110.75.
Stocks, such as DLF, IDFC, Punjab National Bank, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank and SBI, were among the biggest losers, all ending down in the range of 2-4%.
Market experts said investor attention was focused on the
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