Markets Took Plunge in Opening Trades

The Global Markets emanate mixed vibes this morning. U.S. stock futures dropped, signaling the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index may post a fourth week of losses, after concern increased that the global economy is weakening. European equities plummeted the most in more than two years as U.S. economic data missed forecast, two Federal Reserve officials said the central bank shouldn’t act to protect stock investors and Swedish regulators warned that lenders are unprepared for a freeze in money markets. This morning Asian stocks fell, with the regional index revisiting levels from last week’s global stock rout, amid signs the world economy is slowing and Europe’s debt crisis will damage the banking system. In commodities, Oil fell in New York, heading for a fourth weekly drop, as investors bet fuel demand will falter amid signs of weaker growth in Europe, the U.S. and China, which account for about half of world crude consumption. Gold rallied to an all-time high, poised for the longest run of weekly gains since April 2007, as escalating concern that the global economy is slowing drove equities and commodities lower, spurring demand for a haven. Copper gained, paring a third weekly decline, as a global market rout deepened concerns that weaker economic growth in the U.S. and Europe may hurt metals demand. The Indian markets took a plunge during the opening trades with the Sensex trading at 16271 down by 217 points while the Nifty trades at 4880 down by 63 points. Almost all the sectoral indices trade in red this morning with the only exception being the Realty index. The major dragger this morning is the IT index that trades at 4715 declining more than four percentage points. The market breadth is negative with 583 advances as against 1687 declines on BSE.