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Sensex down 91 points ahead of FED meet

MUMBAI: The markets closed weak on Wednesday with the benchmark Sensex on the Bombay Stock Exchange losing 91 points even as all eyes are on U.S. Federal Reserve meeting.

The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share bellwether settled the day 17287.31, a loss of 91.15 points from its previous close.

The Sensex had surged to the day’s high of 17480.70 (a rise of 102 points) in early trade.

The broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also fell by 29.60 points to close at 5,165.90 from its last close.

Marketmen said investors were so much cautious that even better-than-expected Q4 earnings announced by bluechip companies Reliance Communications and HDFC, failed to trigger any major buying support.

The sluggish trend in Asian and European markets also cast shadow on sentiment.

Investors’ unwillingness to enlarge positions also was due to continued concerns over high inflation rate.

Reliance Industries was down 1.44 per cent, HDFC 2.66 per cent, DLF 2.84 per cent, HDFC Bank 2.11 per cent, Grasim 2.81 per cent, ICICI Bank by 2.43 per cent and ONGC 1.84 per cent.

After losing a good 32 paise on Tuesday, the rupee shed another three paise at 40.51/40.52 against the dollar on Wednesday even as the market awaited cues from the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting. It closed at 40.48/49 on Tuesday.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the domestic unit fluctuated widely in a range of 40.38 and 40.64. It resumed firm at 40.4250/4350 a dollar.

Poor dollar supplies also weighed on the rupee sentiment, forex dealers said. — PTI

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