World credit crisis roils Indian equities; Sensex below 13K

World credit crisis roils Indian equities; Sensex below 13K ; 29 Sep, 2008, 1651 hrs IST, ECONOMICTIMES.COM

MUMBAI: Equities ended on a bleak note Monday, tracking the fall of European financial giants like UK’s Bradford & Bingley Plc, Belgium’s Fortis Financial, and Germany’s Hypo Real Estate Holding AG swept in the wake of the US credit crisis. National Stock Exchange’s Nifty ended at 3869.65, down 115.6 points or 2.90 per cent from Friday’s close. The 50-share index sank to a low of 3777.30 intraday. Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex closed at 12,629.60, below the 13K level, losing 472.58 points or 3.61 per cent. It slumped to the day’s low of 12,402.84. All eyes are on the financial market turmoil sweeping across the world. Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Bros, AIG, Washington Mutual, Fortis Financial, Bradford & Bingley... and more are expected to join this list of banks and investment firms seeking bailout. In the latest development, the UK government seized the biggest lender to landlords after its failure to get funds and competitors refused to buy mortgage loans gone bad. It is the second British bank after Northern Rock Plc to be nationalised this year. Spain's Banco Santander has agreed to pay 612 million pounds ($1.1 billion) for Bradford & Bingley's 197 branches and 20 billion pounds of deposits. Meanwhile, regulators in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg injected 11.2 billion euros ($16.3 billion) to save Fortis. In Washington, the House of Republicans authorised spending $700 billion to buy assets impaired by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. Banks worldwide have reported writedowns and loan losses $554 billion since the crisis started. Back home, the losers were led by ICICI Bank (-12.11%), JP Associates (-11.85%), Satyam Computer (9.13%), TCS (-8.4%), Tata Power (-6.95%), among others. Hindustan Unilever was the only stock standing among the 30 index components. It was up 0.79 per cent. Advances across BSE were 357 against declines of 2,287. Stocks unchanged were 41. (All figures provisional)