COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Three days of speculation and slide: Sensex down 121.28 points, 3102.29; Nifty loses 30 points, 904.95

Share prices declined heavily on the Bombay Stock Exchange during the three-day trading cycle, which ended on September 30, following speculative selling spree by bull operators coupled with lack of buying support from foreign institutional investors and domestic institutional investors.

Reports of decline in the net asset value of Unit Trust of India's Unit Scheme-64, fresh fall in the world markets and rare appearance of the FIIs in the market in the wake of two consecutive holiday's of Dasara and Gandhi Jayanti on October 1 and 2 respectively dampened market sentiment on the country's premier bourse, marketmen said.

Reflecting the bearish phase, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index lost by 121.28 points to 3102.29 points against last week's close of 3223.57 points. The broad-based BSE-100 index also fell by 44.94 points to 1379.78 points from the Friday's close of 1424.72 points.

Market opened on a firm note, but could not sustain the uptrend and moved down during the course of day on Monday. Media reports that UTI's US-64's NAV got eroded by at least Rs 5 uring the financial year 1998 depressed the market sentiment and created panic in the market attracting speculative selling from the players.

The UTI chairman on Wednesday announced the sale and repurchase prices of the US-64 for the month of October-98, higher from the September quotes. It however failed to bring any cheer to the bearish market.

UTI hiked the sale price of US-64 to Rs 14.55 from Rs 14.40 and the repurchase price at Rs 14.25 from Rs 14.10.

The world markets which opened on a firm note on expectations of a US interest rate cut, however, registered major decline on Wednesday as the us interest rate cut was smaller than their expectations. The three top stock markets, Tokyo, London and Hong Kong fell victim to profit-taking soon after the US interest rates announcements.

The fresh fall also had its impact on the Indian bourses as the FIIs preferred to stay away from the market and speculators resorted selling in the index-based scrips.

Among the issues, cement giant ACC fell sharply by Rs 65 to Rs 1094, Bajaj Auto Rs 45 to Rs 645, BHEL Rs 17.30 to Rs 281.20, BSES Limited Rs 7.20 to Rs 158.60, Castrol Rs 5.50 to Rs 610, Colgate down by Rs 5.50 to Rs 185, Dr Reddy's Rs 7.25 to Rs 493.75, Glaxo Rs 13.25 to Rs 460, Grasim Rs 29 to Rs 187, Hindalco Rs 15.75 to Rs 510.25, ICICI Rs 8.30 to Rs 53.25, IDBI Rs 3.50 to Rs 49.70, India Hotels Rs 7.50 to Rs 402.75, Indian Rayon Rs 13.30 to Rs 114.70, ITC Rs 9.50 to Rs 619.25, L&T Rs 11 to Rs 184, M&M Rs 6 to Rs 182.40, Pentafour Software down by Rs 10 to Rs 717.25, Reliance Rs 7.30 to Rs 118.80, SBI Rs 10.80 to Rs 200.20, Telco Rs 11 to Rs 138, Tisco Rs 4.90 to Rs 92.10 and Zee Telefilm Rs 31.50 to Rs 638.75.

Total turnover on the BSE amounted to Rs 46.38 billion during the three trading sessions.

The National Stock Exchange also witnessed a subdued trend during the three trading sessions of the week. Mirroring the weak trend, S&P CNX Nifty index declined by 30 points to 904.95 points against the last week's close of 934.95 points.

CNC Nifty Junior ended lower by 7.95 points to 1538.50 points against the Friday's close of 1546.45 points. The CNX Defty index dropped by 23.85 points to 738.45 points from the previous week's close of 762.30 points. The CNX-500 and CNX Midcap 200 eased by 13.10 and 2.33 points to 622.94 points and 552.78 points against last Friday's close of 636.04 and 555.11 points respectively.

Total turnover on the NSE reported during the week was Rs 54.20 billion.

UNI