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Indian equities mauled, key index dips below 9,000 again Lead

BUS11Business/BusinessIndian equities mauled, key index dips below 9,000 again LeadMumbai, Nov 6 IANS Indian equities markets were in for yet another bloodbath Thursday with a key share index dipping by more than 473 points mid-afternoon to fall below the psychologically important 9,000 mark on global recession fears and selling by foreign institutional investors FIIs.By mid-afternoon, the 30-share benchmark sensitive index Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE fell to 9,646.91, down 473.10 points or 4.67 percent from its previous close Wednesday at 10,120.01 points.The market had opened weak at 9,755.03 points, down 364.98 points or 3.6 percent from its previous close Wednesday and hit an intra-day low of 9,635.16.The broader-based 50-share S&P CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange NSE also opened weak and fell to 2,868.15, down 126.8 points or 4.23 percent from its previous close at 2,994.95 points.Mid-afternoon the BSE midcap index was at 3,290.74, down 103.87 points or 3.06 percent from its previous close at 3,394.61 points.The BSE smallcap index too fell to 3,852.41, down 112.37 points or 2.83 percent from its previous close at 3,964.78 points.The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq had closed Wednesday down 5.25 percent and 5.53 percent respectively.Similarly, other Asian markets were in the red Thursday before Indian markets opened. The Nikkei, key index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 5.63 percent. The Hang Seng, key index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was also down 6.41 percent.Taking their cue from these markets, Indian equities also opened weak and continued in the red.News of lending rate cuts by various state-owned banks and the promise of such cuts by private lenders did not make any difference to the selling pressure as FIIs continued to pump out cash from the market, analysts said.The selling by the FIIs completely outmatched any value buying by domestic investors at the lower levels, analysts said.All 13 sectoral indices were in the red with metal, oil and gas, telecommunication, media and technology and banks being the worst losers.Only three of the 30 stocks that make up the Sensex showed gains. They were Ranbaxy Ltd, Hindustan Unilever and ITC.The biggest losers were Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Sterlite Industries and Bharti Airtel.The fact that Tata Steel was the biggest loser despite reporting a more than 40 percent jump in net profit for the latest quarter for which results have been reported again showed that selling was not being influenced by fundamentals or company performance but was entirely being driven by FIIs, analysts said.--Indo-Asian News Servicearj/jg481 Words*06111353