No Anna-Like Rally on D-St as Gloom Spreads Sensex, Nifty crash nearly 2% as jittery FIIs dump . 900-cr shares on Friday

   Wealthy investors are waiting for stocks to dip further. Insurance companies and mutual funds are buying in small doses — too scared to stick their neck out. Offshore funds that specialise in emerging markets are pulling out to park cash in US treasury bills — papers that are once again being perceived by global investors as a safe haven. And, on Europe the bets are divided between sick economies giving up the euro and German Chancellor Angela Merkel making a lastditch attempt to avert a final collapse and disintegration. 

"In such times, it's difficult to say how long FII selling will go on. Local institutional buying is just not enough to match the FII selling," said Rashesh Shah, chairman of Edelweiss. While Shah still thinks 4,800 is a strong support level for the Nifty, some of the leading technical analysts see a respite for the Nifty at 4,600. Foreign investors dumped Indian shares worth . 900 crore on Friday, according to provisional data, taking their sales tally for the month to almost . 8,000 crore. In July, they had invested . 8,000 crore in India. FII selloff pulled down the rupee 0.7% to 45.74/75 against the dollar this week.  On Friday, Indian indices fell 2%, mirroring the weakness in global markets, which tumbled on worries of a double-dip recession in the US and worsening credit crisis in Europe. The Sensex dropped 328.12 points to 16,141.67 while the Nifty fell 98.50 points to 4,845.65. In the broad market, 2,083 stocks fell and 773 rose on BSE. "There is just no buying. Even a small selling is pushing down prices," said Prakash Kacholia, MD of brokerage Emkay Global.  The stampede out of stocks quickened as investors and traders did not want to be caught on the wrong foot if the issues in Europe worsened. "The most worrisome, of course, is that the European banking mess is starting to resemble what happened in the US right after Lehman blew up," said Ed Yardeni, president & chief investment strategist of US-based Yardeni Research. European indices fell 2-3% on worries that problems in the continent's banking system are seeping into its inter-bank market. Investors fear a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis if the situation worsens in Europe.  Asian indices also slumped, with Japan's Nikkei dropping 2.5%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 3.1% and South Korea's Kospi over 6%.  "The India-specific factors are less important currently. The global uncertainty, especially in Europe, is weighing on the market. Reports on the demand by some EU countries for collateral from Greece have led to an increase in risk aversion globally," said Jyoti Jaipuria, head-India research, DSP Merrill Lynch.  India's spot gold prices crossed . 28,000 per 10 grams, a new high, tracking firm global trends.