Profit booking pushes down Sensex

MUMBAI, OCT. 18. The euphoria created by relaxation of buyback norms was short-lived and equities beat a hasty retreat pushing the Sensex down by about 63 points at close on the Bombay Stock Exchange today due to profit selling induced by a sharp fall in New York stocks last night.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened weak at 3023.29 and later moved downwards to the intra-day low at 2967.68 before closing at 2981.33 against yesterday's close of 3043.85, a net loss of 62.52 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 index also dipped by 28.96 points to 1377.82 from the previous close of 1406.78.

Technology stocks, which were in the forefront in the past few days, felt the heat right from the beginning of the session on reports that Southeast Asian stocks were depressed in the morning session following a sharp setback in New York stocks reportedly in the light of a cautious statement on economic conditions by the Federal Reserve chairman yesterday.

The Dow Jones industrial average and the Nasdaq composite index dropped by about 151 points and 76 points yesterday. Despite stronger than expected growth by 40 per cent in the net profit by Wipro for the second quarter, IT counters could not sustain uptrend because of cautious approach by players which preferred to book profits at higher levels in the prevailing Uncertain political situation.

The Government's decision on Tuesday to ease buyback norms had cheered the market aiding the Sensex to cross the 3000 psychological barrier yesterday.

Domestic financial institutions and stock brokers booked profits by selling IT scrips at their higher levels, market sources said.

In the specified group, 116 including 21 index-based counters registered sharp to moderate losses while 57 others finished with gains.

The BSE-200 index and the dollex-200 index were quoted sharply down at 302.48 and 104.90 compared with previous close of 308.09 and 106.88 respectively. The BSE-500 index dipped by 15.77 points to 890.81 from yesterday's close of 906.58. The Dollex-30 was down by 10.90 points at 509.83 from the overnight close of 520.73.

The volume was sharply down at Rs. 962.88 crores from Rs. 1,355 crores yesterday. Wipro clocked highest turnover of Rs. 150.83 crores followed by Satyam Computer, Infosys, Ranbaxy and Digital Global.

- PTI

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Business
Previous : MTNL NYSE listing on Nov. 8
Next     : JV to develop third phase of Hitec City