Equities drift further on BSE

MUMBAI, AUG. 8.Equities drifted downwards pushing the Sensex marginally down by about 17 points in range-bound trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange today due to sustained selling pressure from domestic mutual funds.

Fresh sell-off, albeit in small quantity, led by the Unit Trust of India was partly attributed to the Standard & Poor's downgrade of India's long-term local currency sovereign credit rating to triple +B+ minus from triple "B" and the foreign currency long- term rating to `negative' from `stable'.

Though the rupee did not have any negative impact in the foreign exchange market as feared, the main reasons cited by the rating agency for its unexpected revision were serious, market sources said.

Foreign institutional investors, which are the only driving force behind the market, too have slowed down activity.Reflecting the depressed trend, the BSE sensitive index moved in a small range of 25 points between 3321.18 and 3294.19 before closing at 3302.32 as against 3319.67, a fall of 17.35 points.

- PTI

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