COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Telco leads Sensex plunge; 3020.71

Equity prices suffered a further setback on Bombay Stock Exchange following hectic selling pressure by the foreign institutional investors coupled with crisis in the Asian market, dropping the Sensex by 41.54 points.

The political development in Jayalalitha's decision to review support to the Vajpayee-led government over the Cauvery issue, seems to have made investors cautious, leading brokers said.

The continuing Asian crisis, and the crash in Dow Jones Index of over 300 points during the last week reflected on the Indian GDR shares that traded in discount of five to seven per cent today, demoralising the sentiment of the FIIs.

The FIIs sold huge amount of index-based Telco shares. It declined by Rs 10 to Rs 134, brokers added.

Reflecting the downtrend, the 30-scrip BSE Sensex opened lower at 3056.22 points, gradually declined during the later part of the day to 3017.33 points, before closing at 3020.71 points, suffering a loss of 41.54 points as against the previous close of 3062.25 points.

The broad-based BSE National Index (100 scrips) also came down to 1351.05.

The total turnover on the screen-based trading system was Rs 7.27 billion involving 25.3 million shares in 85,448 trades.

ITC registered the highest turnover of Rs 1.49 billion followed by Satyam Computers Rs 1.20 billion, Pentafour Software Rs 635.6 million, Zee Telefilms Rs 450.3 million, RIL Rs 390 million, SBI Rs 375.5 million, Tata Tea Rs 325.3 million, Telco Rs 288.1 million, Infosys Technology Rs 212.1 million, ACC Rs 155.7 million, Dr Reddy's Rs 143.5 million, Castrol India Rs 99.6 million, Hindustan Lever Rs 76.2 million, MTNL Rs 72.6 million and Dabur India Rs 70.4 million in specified counters.

Moderate trading was observed at Software Solutions Rs 18.2 million, BFL Software Rs 18.1 million, Silverline Industries Rs 12.4 million, HCL Infosys Rs 12.2 million, Rolta Industries Rs 10.3 million, Wipro Rs 5.5 million, Amara Raja Batteries Rs 4.2 million, Bata India Rs 3.3 million, CMC Limited Rs 2.9 million and Bausch and Lomb Rs 2.7 million in 'B1' counters.

UNI