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Tuesday April 19, 12:49 AM
Global weakness hurts
By Our Markets Bureau
The BSE Sensex closed down 91.56 points at 6156.78 as selling across the board propelled the stock markets down further. The index opened at 6220.98 which was also the high for the day while it hit a low of 6118.42 in intra-day trades.
It was an extended trading session since the NSE's derivatives segment developed a technical snag in the afternoon and trading was suspended in the segment for two hours till 3 pm. The Nifty closed at 1927.80, down 28.50 points from its previous close.
Dealers pointed out that the free fall in the indices was due to overall weakness in the global markets coupled with a lack of buying support in the domestic markets which lead to a slide in equities.
Metal and pharma stocks mainly resulted in the fall in the indices while stocks of refineries and some auto companies saw gains during the day.
The BSE Metal index registered the biggest fall, with a loss of 199 points, followed by the Bankex with a 86 points loss. The BSE 100 fell 42 points, the PSU index fell 49 points, while the IT Index was down nearly 31 points.
The breadth of the market was negative with losers outnumbering the gainers. The volumes were modest at Rs 1,685 crore on the BSE.
The markets bounced back from lower levels purely on buying in blue-chip counters. Among the frontline stocks, index heavyweights such Reliance (RELI.BO, news) Industries (down 2.35 per cent to Rs 517.25), Hindustan Lever (down 2.15 per cent to Rs 129.45) and ONGC (down 2.19 per cent to Rs 828.10) dragged down the index.
Among metal stocks, SAIL (down 7.92 per cent to Rs 54.05), Nalco (down 5.17 per cent to Rs 154.10), Tata Steel (TISC.BO, news) (down 3.55 per cent to Rs 353.25) and Hindalco (down 2.23 per cent to Rs 1,229) were the main losers.
Select auto stocks, however, ended higher on buying support from institutional investors.
Essar Steel (ESRG.BO, news) was frozen at the 10 per cent lower circuit at Rs 49.10 with sustained selling in the counter. Jindal Vijaynagar Steel, however, closed up 1.20 per cent to Rs 358.05.
Among pharma stocks, Dr Reddy's Labs closed down 4.19 per cent at Rs 682 with continued selling in the counter triggered off after it lost a patent case against Eli Lilly. Ranbaxy was down 1.78 per cent to Rs 935, while Cipla (CIPL.BO, news) ended down 1.02 per cent at Rs 232.
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