The Sensex fell over 300 points while Nifty struggled below 10,050, tracking weak Asian markets.

Indian stock markets struggled today, tracking weak Asian markets. The Sensex fell over 300 points while Nifty struggled below 10,050. Yes Bank shares fell 10% to Rs 178.55 after the bank reported exposure of Rs 2,620.70 crore to troubled IL&FS group as of September 2018. Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd slumped 15% while Equitas Holdings Ltd fell 17% after Reserve Bank of India clarified that promoters of small finance banks must list its banking units separately within three years of operations.

The rupee today weakened marginally against US dollar after fiscal deficit widened and tracking losses in global equities and currencies markets. At 9.15 am, the home currency was trading at 73.43 a dollar, down 0.21% from its Thursday’s close of 73.28. The currency opened at 73.43 a dollar.

Asian shares slipped today after disappointing results from Alphabet Inc and Amazon.com heightened concerns over the outlook for US corporate earnings, global trade and economic growth. The wobbly start for Asian markets came despite a bounce on Wall Street overnight, which was helped by bargain-hunting and positive earnings from Microsoft Corp. In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.69%.

Those gains were put into perspective, however, as shares of both Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc fell sharply after the closing bell on disappointing earnings. Predictably, the Nasdaq futures turned down 1% and S&P E-mini futures fell 0.8%, underscoring broad worries about US corporate earnings, and the outlook for the economy, which triggered a plunge on Wall Street on Wednesday and sent global markets into a tailspin.

Global markets have been whipsawed in recent sessions on concerns over global growth as investors fretted over US-China trade frictions, a mixed bag of US corporate earnings, Federal Reserve rate hikes and Italian budget woes. A slowdown in China has been particularly worrying for policy makers and investors, hitting asset markets from stocks to currencies and commodities.

Investors will get a chance to check the US economic pulse later Friday when the government releases third-quarter GDP data.

Oil prices gave up some ground after earlier rising on signals from Saudi Arabia’s energy minister that there could be a need for intervention to reduce oil stockpiles. US crude dipped 0.74% at $66.83 a barrel. Brent crude fell 0.49% to $76.51 per barrel.

source: livemint.com