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Nifty plunges 60 points, ends 28 points lower

The market opened on a distinctly weak note on the National Stock Exchange, slid further during the course of the day following heavy selling pressure by foreign institutional investors, but recovered some of the losses towards the end of trading session on the buying support by local institutional investors.

Reflecting the bearish trend, the NSE-50 (Nifty) index opened at 1160.15, the day's high, fell to touch the day's low of 1100.10, and closed at 1132.25 points, netting a loss of 28.05 points as against the previous close of 1160.30 points.

The Dollar NSE-50 (Defty) index declined by 24.40 points to 986.55 points as against the previous close of 1010.95. The Midcap index lost heavily by 68.25 points to 1561.90 points as against the previous close of 1630.15 points.

The total turnover on the NSE reported during the day was Rs 22.73 billion from 88.6 million shares and 291,972 trades. The exchange witnessed 167 scrips advancing, 922 declining, and 61 unchanged. About 171 securities have hit their price bands today.

Among the securities which witnessed hectic activity were ITC Rs 5.3 billion, Satyam Comp Rs 3 billion, SBI-N Rs 1.5 billion, Reliance Rs 1.3 million, Pentsfware Rs 823.8 million, ACC Rs 771.8 million, Infosys Tech Rs 682.9 million, Tata Tea Rs 634.7 million, L and T Rs 590.3 million, Castrol Rs 503.5 million, Tisco Rs 402.2 million, Hind Lever Rs 366.2 million, Videocon Intl Rs 316.4 million.

The other actively traded counters were Nestle Rs 310.1 million, ICICI Rs 303.9 million, Telco 264.6 million, Bajaj Auto Rs 232.7 million, BFL Software Rs 220.7 million, Zee TV Rs 210.5 million, Silverline Rs 184.2 million, MTNL Rs 181.3 million, Sterlite Rs 176.9 million, Cadbury Rs 167.8 million, Sqrd Software Rs 167.4 million, and LML Rs 166.2 million.

Among the gainers, Cochin Refin topped with 3.07 per cent, followed by BPCL 28.2 per cent, Ranbaxy 0.57 per cent, while on the losers were the Orient Bank topped with 8.72 per cent, followed by Thermax 6.34 per cent, IndoGulf 5.93 per cent, Rel Capital 5.61 per cent and SBI-N 5.26 per cent.

UNI