China property woes trip global markets

Mumbai: As expected, the payment crisis being faced by China's second largest property developer Evergrande and upcoming central bank meetings to review monetary policies impacted the global markets, leading to sharp decline in metals, bank and reality stocks in India.

After a gap-down opening the Sensex traded in the red and extended the fall after a brief recovery to close 525 points or 0.89 per cent down at 58490.93.

The Nifty-50 fell 1.07 per cent or 188.25 points to 17396.90.

In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 3.30 per cent while other major Asian markets of China, Japan and South Korea were shut due to a holiday. Major European markets also opened lower and traded more than two per cent down while US market was down over 1.5 per cent around 8 pm IST.

The BSE Metal Index dropped 6.80 per cent while BSE Realty and Bankex fell 2.16 per cent and 1.66 per cent, respectively.

The top losers in the metal index included Tata Steel (9.53 per cent), Jindal Steel (9.13 per cent), Sail (8.20 per cent), NMDC (7.70 per cent) and JSW Steel (6.99 per cent).

“Metals have been under pressure today on buzz over Chinese firm Evergrande facing financial trouble and speculation over default on debt payment, which has led to a selloff in most risky assets,” said Navneet Damani, head of commodities & currencies research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Domestic institutions sold equities worth Rs 1,626.58 crore while foreign portfolio investors were on the sidelines with net buying worth Rs 92.54 crore.