Sensex crashes by 133 points

MUMBAI, DEC. 15. Equities suffered a steep setback on the Bombay Stock Exchange today with the Sensex registering a loss of 133.29 points, following squaring up of outstanding positions by operators on the last day of the current settlement and fresh selling by foreign institutional investors.

The Sensex finally settled at 4137.16 against Thursday's close of 4270.45. The benchmark remained in negative territory throughout the day. A fall in the Sensex could be gauged by sharp losses in 29 out of 30 index based shares.

Telecom, media and technology sectors bore the brunt of FII selling mainly influenced by negative corporate earning reports by major us companies, economic growth worries and Nasdaq's gloomy close last night.

The Nasdaq composite index and the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled by over 94 and 119 points respectively last night. A feeble trend in the south east Asian markets today also partly dampened the sentiment.

A sudden turn in FIIs attitude compelled operators to change their stance by joining the selling bandwagon.Dealers said that end account consideration forced operators to offload their outstanding positions which were high at the current level.

Meanwhile, the BSE sensitive index opened lower at 4241.46 and immediately touched a high of 4264.83. Later, profit booking at higher level pulled down the Sensex to a low of 4130.60. The BSE- 100 index also dropped by 86.11 points to 2144.12 compared with last close of 2230.23.

FIIs, mainly Morgan Stanley, reportedly sold shares of TMT sector besides pressing sales in select old economy counters. Local institutions and funds also booked profits in select high priced cyclicals.

Telecom shares, Himachal Futuristic and Global Telesystm were the worst sufferers, dropping by 14.65 and 11.25 per cent respectively. However, ITC bucked the general trend and closed up by Rs. 12.90 at 923.25. Knoll Pharma was also in keen demand on expectation of good news.

Mirroring the bearish trend, 132 specified scrips recorded sharp to moderate losses while only nine closed in a positive territory.

- PTI

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Business
Previous : BASF sells pharma business to Abbott Lab.
Next     : Rupee remains steady