Sensex falls 400 points on Japan worries

The Indian markets have fallen sharply amid fears of a nuclear catastrophe in Japan. The Sensex plunged 401 points to 18,037 and the Nifty fell 122 points to 5,408 at 10.04 am.

The benchmark indices have recovered slightly from the day's low. Earlier, the Sensex had fallen close to 500 points to 17,920.

Andrew Freris of BNP Paribas Wealth Management said these are short term fluctuations that unfortunately take into account human reactions but not a cold financial investment. "Trade between India and Japan is tiny and India is not an export driven economy so it's a knee-jerk reaction," he added.

Sanjiv Dhawan of JV Capital said, "There is a problem of radiation spreading and creating panic. Domestically, the markets are looking up to the RBI policy and advance tax numbers but in the context of global selling there might be some panic in the markets."

The sharp decline comes on the back of a uniform fall across Asian markets. The Nikkei 225 in Japan plunged 12.94 per cent today. The Nikkei had closed 6.18 per cent lower on Monday, the first trading day after the quake on Friday. The Hang Seng fell 3.83 per cent and the South Korean Kospi declined 3.43 per cent. The Chinese markets fell 2-3 per cent.

Overnight, the Wall Street closed lower with the Dow falling 51points to end below the 12,000 mark.

All sectoral indices were trading in the red. Realty stocks saw the biggest sell off, falling more than 3 per cent. Banking, metals, auto, capital goods and IT stocks fell 2-3 per cent.

All 30 Sensex stocks were trading in the red. Maruti Suzuki was the top loser falling 3.67 per cent. Jaiprakash Associates, Tata Power and Reliance Infra declined 3-3.5 per cent.


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