CBI raid on UTI personnel: Sensex loses 30 points

MUMBAI, JULY 20. The benchmark fell by another 30.18 points to close at 3340.75 on the Bombay Stock Exchange today on renewed selling following news of a raid by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on key personnel of Unit Trust of India.

As soon as the news filtered in, the market reacted downwards due to a fresh wave of selling after opening on a positive note following overnight firm Wall Street advices, dealers said.

The CBI today raided office premises and residences of former UTI chairman, two executive directors, general manager and a broker, Mr. Rakesh Mehta of Renaissance Securities.

``The nervousness at the bourse extended a five-day string of losses on the BSE after operators initially appeared to show a turnaround following the recovery of over 30 points on the Nasdaq on Thursday," a dealer said, adding ``but it was short-lived as sellers later dominated trading".

The fall in the Sensex could be gauged by a sharp to moderate decline in 23 out of 30 index-based scrips which included heavyweights such as BHEL, ACC, Gujarat Ambuja Cement, L&T, MTNL, NIIT, Ranbaxy, Reliance Industries, Satyam Computer, SBI and Zee Telefilms.

Had there not been a smart rise in other heavily weighted counters such as Infosys Technologies, Hindustan Lever and ITC, the index would have showed even sharper losses, another dealer said.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened slightly better at 3375.82 and moved further to a high of 3389.49. Later it dropped to a low of 3331.42 before closing at 3340.75. The BSE-100 index also eased by 11.57 points to 1578.43 from 1590.

The market lacked direction and remained range-bound in the light of brokers' strong stance against the ban on the carry forward system and the introduction of rolling settlement which have affected the liquidity and the volume.

Foreign institutional investors, who reportedly were net sellers on Wednesday, slowed down their purchases further affecting market sentiment, they added.

The BSE-200 and the Dollex were quoted down at 347.97 and 122.95 against 350.51 and 123.74 respectively. The BSE-500 was also down by 7.81 points at 1021.48 against 1029.29.

- PTI

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Section  : Business
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