Wall St falls sharply amid credit fears; Dow down 281 pts

Wall Street plunged anew yesterday, hurtling the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 280 points after comments from a major investment bank exacerbated the market's fears of a widening credit crunch.

The drop of more than 2 USD in major stock market indices was a fitting end to two volatile weeks on Wall Street and followed back-to-back, late-day triple digit gains in the Dow. This time, the catalyst for a sharp skid was Bear Stearns Cos. Chief Financial Officer Sam Molinaro, who described turmoil in the credit market as the worst he'd seen in 22 years.

Stocks started the day with a decline after the government said jobs growth was not as strong as expected last month and a trade group reported that the nation's service sector grew at a slower pace than expected in July. Then, credit concerns, which have dogged investors for months and have roiled markets since last week, further weighed on investor sentiment; Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its credit outlook on Bear Stearns to negative from stable because of the investment bank's exposure to the distressed mortgage and corporate buyout markets.

Investors remain worried that problems in subprime mortgages - those made to borrowers with poor credit histories - will force lenders to make credit less available. When people and companies can't borrow money as easily, the economy tends to slow down.

Investors could be in for more tumultuousness in the coming week, which not only includes economic figures on productivity and consumer credit, but also brings a meeting of the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee, which has left short-term interest rates unchanged for the past year. Investors will likely be looking to its statement following its meeting for any word on the mortgage and credit markets.

The Dow fell 281.18 points to 13,182.15. As has been typical in recent selloffs, much of the decline came late in the session; the Dow lost more than 100 points in the final 15 minutes Friday. Despite the day's loss, the index was off only 0.63 USD for the week.

A look at how the Indian ADRs performed:

Name Infosys Sify Rediff.com India Satyam Wipro ICICI Bank HDFC Bank MTNL VSNL Dr Reddy's Lab Tata Motors Patni Computer Sterlite Ind

Symbol INFY SIFY REDF SAY WIT IBN HDB MTE VSL RDY TTM PTI SLT

Price 47.96 7.08 15.13 26.10 13.95 43.14 81.71 6.55 20.69 15.25 16.16 21.13 15.27

Change 1.52 0.34 0.85 0.88 0.57 1.56 4.09 0.53 1.29 0.61 0.29 0.21 0.46

% Chg -3.07% -4.58% -5.32% -3.26% -3.93% -3.49% -4.77% -7.49% -5.87% -3.85% -1.76% -0.98% -2.92%

Volume 1,484,546 233,501 243,715 738,100 524,900 2,720,450 475,100 189,000 117,700 464,700 1,274,900 97,200 1,472,900

High 49.59 7.42 16.08 27.15 14.94 45.73 86.35 7.15 22.18 15.71 16.65 21.68 15.70

Low 47.91 7.05 15.13 26.10 13.95 42.95 81.71 6.49 20.51 15.25 16.01 21.00 14.81