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BSE catches up with Wall St, Tokyo blues; Sensex down 51 points, 2917.07

Reflecting world market trends, pivotals fell sharply on the Bombay Stock Exchange, pushing down the BSE Sensex by 52 points following speculative selling pressure by foreign institutional investors and local players on the first day of current settlement.

Reflecting the bearish mood, the benchmark 30-scrip BSE Sensex declined sharply by 51.68 points to close at 2917.07 points against the Friday's close of 2968.75 points.

Russia's announcement of a sharp devaluation of rouble also added the fuel to the depressed sentiments in the market, dealers said and added that the devaluation of Russian currency may affect other world currencies and which could have a worst impact on the Indian market too.

The FIIs continued their selling in the index-based scrips on the BSE, while the local operators also joined them today, a leading BSE brokers said.

Marketmen also attributed the bearish mood on the BSE to the weak global depository receipts market and fluid political situation.

According to a report, Tokyo stocks plunged to a two-month low following declines on Wall Street and doubts about the new prime minister's ability to resuscitate Japan's economy. The report quoted analysts saying that the sharp fall could signal the start of another miserable week for Tokyo stock prices.

The Sensex opened at 2983.40 points, higher from the previous close of 2968.75 points and immediately touched the day's high of 3002.17 points, fell to touch the day's low of 2917.07 witnesseing intra-day volatility of 85 points.

The Sensex remained stagnant to the day's low level till the close.

The broad-based BSE-100 index declined by 19.56 points to 1306.03 points against the previous close of 1325.59 points. The bse-200 and Dollex indices closed lower by 3.92 and 1.83 points to 303.38 and 116.89 points against the previous close of 307.20 and 118.72 points respectively.

Surprisingly, the Indian rupee remained nearly steady compared to the negative activity in the stock markets responding to the Russian development. Leading forex dealers said that the Russian rouble has maximum business with German mark and therefore the rupee did not react so much. The rupee closed at Rs 43.10/12 registering marginal decline against American greenback against the Friday's close of Rs 43.17/18.

Total turnover on the screen-based network of the BSE reported during the day at Rs 8.55 billion. ITC recorded highest business volume of Rs 2.26 billion, followed by Satyam Computer Rs 1.26 billion, Pentafour Software Rs 570.9 million, Zee Telefilms Rs 545.9 million, Tata Tea Rs 483.6 million and State Bank of India Rs 330.9 million.

Other actively traded counters were: Reliance Rs 322.5 million, Infosys Tech Rs 245.7 million, Dr Reddy's Rs 209.6 million, Telco Rs 168.3 million, Castrol India Rs 152.2 million, Glaxo Rs 141.2 million and Hindustan Lever Rs 87.1 million.

UNI