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When indices went on one hell of a roller-coaster ride

It was a week of turmoil, hope, anxiety and fear, a week of wild fluctuations, at the country's leading bourses.

The Bombay Stock Exchange opened on a bearish note, and the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index tumbled by 224 points hitting an 18-month low of 2878.07 points on Monday as the pivotals fell sharply on heavy unloading by the FIIs, bull operators and domestic institutional investors.

At the National Stock Exchange, the S&P CNX Nifty fell by 64.20 points at 840.75. With the major falls recorded by the leading bourses, it was called a Black Monday by the marketmen.

The market witnessed a smart recovery in next two days, but once again suffered a major setback on Thursday with the Sensex losing 112 points, wiping out the gains recorded on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Smart performances by petrochemical giant Reliance Industries Limited also failed to bring any cheer to the depressed market.

On the last day of the concluded trading cycle, the market witnessed marginal recovery with the Sensex going up by 20 points. It 185.63 points to end at 2916.66 points from the previous week's close of 3102.29 points during the week under review.

The broad-based BSE-100 index also declined by 78.73 points to 1301.05 points against the previous close of 1379.78 points. On the NSE, the S&P CNX Nifty declined by 55.85 points to 849.10 against the previous close of 904.95 points. CNX Nifty Junior also came down by 55.40 points to 1483.10 points from the previous close of 1538.50 points. CNX Defty slipped by 43.75 points to 694.70 points from the previous week's close of 738.45 points. The CNX-500 and CNX Midcap-200 eased by 33 and 25.14 points to 589.94 and 527.64 points from the previous week's close of 622.94 and 552.78 points respectively.

Back on the BSE, the BSE-200 and Dollex indices fell by 6.20 and 5.86 points to 304.24 and 119.58 points from the previous week's close of 320.44 and 125.44 points.

Total turnover on the BSE reported during the week was Rs 78.28 billion. Total turnover on the NSE stood higher at Rs 8580 billion.

The reported decline in the undisclosed net asset value of UTI's flagship scheme, Unit Scheme-64 created panic in the market. Reports of redemptions in the scheme also prevented bull operators from taking long-term positions, marketmen said.

UNI