COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Bombay Stock Exchange / Weekly Review

Majors avoid long-term positions; Sensex takes 158-point dip

The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex fell sharply by 158.29 points and closed below 2800 mark for the week ended November 27 as the fall in equities continued unabated throughout the week on the country's premier bourse.

The market analysts have attributed the bearish phase on the BSE to various reasons like political uncertainty prevailing at the Centre in wake of assembly elections held in four states and predictions through exit-polls cautioning the ruling government at the Centre.

The prime minister's hinting at the possibility of mid-term polls and the S&P's decision to revise outlook to negative of India's three leading financial institutions affected the market.

Consequently, it witnessed limited activity by the major players like foreign institutional investors and the leading domestic institutional investor Unit Trust of India.

Mirroring the weak trend, the 30-scrip BSE Sensex closed below the psychological barrier of 2800 at 2783.10 points, showing a net loss of 158.29 points from the previous week's close of 2941.39 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 index drifted lower by 69.78 points to 1242.33 points as against the last week's close of 1312.11 points.

According to leading BSE brokers, the major players refrained themselves from taking long-term positions right from the beginning of the week.

The pharma scrips saw some action initially but could not come out with significant gains during the week. There was a decline across the board in the week, an analyst at the leading financial institution said.

According to the predictions carried out by various research agencies on the assembly elections held in four states, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Mizoram cautioned the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre about the likely negative results in Delhi and Rajasthan.

With the lack of participation by FIIs and leading institutional investors, the brokers too lost their business for the last couple of weeks and the situation is indicating danger for the future, a leading BSE broker said while commenting on the trading during the week.

Meanwhile, the BSE-200 and Dollex indices registered a decline of 15.05 and 6.23 points to 289.03 and 113.17 points as against the previous week's close of 304.08 and 119.40 points respectively.

Total turnover on the BSE declined by Rs 1 billion to Rs 46.91 billion as against the previous week's total turnover of Rs 47.91 billion.

Among the issues that declined during the week, ACC closed lower by Rs 131.50 to Rs 890.25, Bajaj Auto by Rs 20.50 to Rs 533.00, BHEL by Rs 31 to Rs 229.70, BSES Rs 11.40 to Rs 141.80, Castrol Rs 25.75 to Rs 622.75, Colgate Rs 8.50 to Rs 167.60, Dr Reddy's Rs 25.25 to Rs 411.75, German Remedies Rs 11.25 to Rs 555.75, Grasim Rs 24.30 to Rs 139.20, Hero Honda Rs 12.25 to Rs 539, Hindustan Lever Rs 30 to Rs 1567, Hindalco Rs 50.50 to Rs 495, ICICI Limited Rs 6.10 to Rs 42.90, IDBI Rs 3.75 to Rs 35.35, Indian Hotels Rs 15.25 to Rs 422, Infosys Technologies Rs 39.75 to Rs 2350.25, ITC Limited Rs 25.75 to Rs 681.25, Larsen & Toubro Rs 11.80 to Rs 142.70, Mahindra & Mahindra Rs 16 to Rs 149.90, MTNL Rs 10 to Rs 172.50, NIIT Rs 34.25 to Rs 1355.75, Reliance Rs 7.10 to Rs 111.70, SBI Rs 9.20 to Rs 150.80, Telco Rs 23.80 to Rs 115.20, Tisco Rs 9.80 to Rs 84.30 and Zee Telefilms lost Rs 31 to close at Rs 605.

The few gainers in the index-based scrips included Cadbury's which gained by 75 paise to Rs 386 and Glaxo Rs 14.50 to Rs 553.25.

UNI

Business news