The Hindu : Sensex down 78 points in lacklustre deals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004

Business

Business

Sensex down 78 points in lacklustre deals

MUMBAI, MARCH 22. Stocks suffered a sharp setback pulling the Sensex down by 78 points at close in lacklustre activity on the Bombay Stock Exchange today on fresh sell-off by institutional investors amid absence of any buying support.

Resuming on a better note at 5446.88, the BSE benchmark 30-share index later turned weak and gradually moved downwards to the day's low of 5347.05 before ending at 5365.40 against last Friday's close of 5443.44, a net fall of 78.04 points or 1.43 per cent.

The volume was extremely low with domestic mutual funds and foreign institutional investors making small sales in a bid to trim their positions in the Futures and Options segment ahead of expiry of March contract on Thursday, brokers said adding that operators were completely sidelined.

The FIIs who were net buyers during last week, reportedly were engaged in selling in select key stocks while some local funds remained sellers in view of the year-end considerations.

Operators and retailers seemed to have preferred to keep away from making any commitments in the light of the general elections to be held during the next couple of months.

The broad-based BSE-100 index dropped by 56.65 points to 2831.32.

Key counters such as RIL, Infosys Technologies, HDFC Bank, Tisco, Tata Motors, SBI, Satyam Computer, BHEL, ACC, ONGC and Wipro recorded sharp falls on fairly heavy selling pressure.

However, a selective smart rally in index-based stocks such as HLL, Bajaj Auto, Cipla, Hindalco, ITC and ICICI Bank helped mitigate the slide in Sensex.

In the specified group, 169 including 21 index-based scrips registered sharp to moderate losses while 22 others finished with gains.

PTI

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