The Hindu : Business : Sensex drops 51 points on erratic monsoon, drought worries

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 15, 2004

Business

Business

Sensex drops 51 points on erratic monsoon, drought worries

MUMBAI, JULY 14. The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share sensitive index continued its slide for the third straight session and ended another 51 points down as erratic monsoon and news of drought-like conditions in some parts of the country induced fresh sell-off even as day-traders and arbitrageurs returned to normal business.

Operators and domestic mutual funds reportedly pressed sales at the prevailing levels despite encouraging first quarter results announced by IT major Infosys Technologies, which led a moderate rally in software stocks.

Opening on a promising note at 4911.22, the BSE benchmark 30-share index gradually moved downwards to the intra-day low of 4835.34 and later ended at 4848.30 against yesterday's close of 4898.99, a net fall of 50.69 points or 1.03 per cent.

Though there was no immediate outcome from the meeting with the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, on the issue of turnover tax, broker representatives seemed to be satisfied over the patient hearing where they made suggestions including their exemption from the ambit of the proposed transaction tax.

Investors resorted to heavy sell-off in the light of official reports on drought-like conditions prevailing in some parts of the country, brokers said. Foreign institutional investors, who reported positive inflow of Rs. 112 crores on Monday, were believed to be buyers in select blue chip counters, particularly technology shares, they added.

RIL, Tata Motors, ONGC, BHEL, Bajaj Auto, HDFC, ITC, HLL and Grasim suffered a sharp setback on selling pressure. However, Infosys, Satyam Computer, Wipro, SBI, GACL and Tisco recorded moderate gains.

The volume of business increased sharply to Rs. 1,748.81 crores from Rs. 1,042.76 crores. UTI Bank were the top traded scrip with the highest turnover of Rs. 160.99 crores as a result of a block deal. RIL clocked a turnover of Rs. 140.93 crores followed by MUL (Rs. 133.05 crores), Tisco (Rs. 120.15 crores) and Tata Motors (Rs. 93.62 crores).

The broad-based BSE-100 index dipped further by 23.94 points to 2588.63.— PTI

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