Sensex drops 329 pts; metal stocks in demand

The key equity benchmarks tumbled in mid-morning trade. After hitting the day's high of 15,400.40, Nifty slipped near the 15,250 mark. Metal shares witnessed some bit of bargain buying after declining in the past two sessions.

At 11:29 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 328.88 points or 0.64% to 51,166.91. The Nifty 50 index fell 106.15 points or 0.69% to 15,254.45.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index slipped 0.80% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 0.93%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On the BSE, 866 shares rose and 2251 shares fell. A total of 117 shares were unchanged.

Fears loomed across markets that the rising attempts of central banks to curb inflation would lead to a slowdown in global economic growth and could possibly lead to a recession.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Metal index advanced 0.97% to 4,767.30. The index had declined 5.92% in the past two sessions.

Welspun Corp (up 3.77%), Jindal Steel & Power (up 3.11%), Steel Authority of India (up 2.83%), Jindal Stainless (up 2.76%) and Tata Steel (up 2.3%) were the top index gainers.

Concurrently, JSW Steel (up 2.05%), NMDC (up 1.76%), Hindustan Copper (up 1.68%), Adani Enterprises (up 1.23%) and Vedanta (up 0.84%) edged higher.

On the other hand, APL Apollo Tubes (down 1.69%), Ratnamani Metals & Tubes (down 0.78%) and Hindustan Zinc (down 0.53%) edged lower.

Global markets:

Asian stocks are trading lower on Friday, following sharp declines on Wall Street as investors weigh the possibility of aggressive monetary policy tightening leading to a recession.

The Bank of Japan is set to release its monetary policy statement on Friday. The Bank of Japan is likely to maintain ultra-low interest rates and stress its resolve to support a fragile economy with massive stimulus.

US stock indexes closed sharply lower on Thursday in a broad sell-off as recession fears grew following moves by central banks around the globe to stamp out rising inflation after the Federal Reserve's largest rate hike since 1994.

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