Global cues drag Sensex 101 pts down; oil & gas, banks dip

Indian equity benchmarks fell half a percent amid a choppy trade on Wednesday following weak global cues post Ben Bernanke comments. Oil & gas, financial, metal, healthcare and cement companies' shares dragged the market lower.

US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged an economic slowdown in the United States, but offered no suggestion of further stimulus to support growth, souring sentiment across equity markets and towards the dollar as investors expect US interest rates to remain low for a longer period of time.

Tim Condon, head of research, Asia, ING Financial Markets said Bernanke really did disappoint with his speech. "It has heightened the fact that monetary policy in the US is really not doing anything to allay fears of global growth slowdown."

European markets like France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were trading about one percent lower, at the time of closing of Indian equities. US index futures namely Dow Jones and NASDAQ too were down half a percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 101.33 points, to close at 18,394.29 and the 50-share NSE Nifty dropped 29.3 points, to end at 5,526.85.

Vivek Mavani, Vice President - Equity at Brics Securities feels that market should continue to find support at roughly about 5300 on the Nifty which is where it bounced back from last week. "At least at this stage it doesn't seem so bad that we will probably break even 5000. But things could change," he said.