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Heavy unloading by bulls pushes Sensex down 60 points; 3146.83

The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex declined sharply by 60 points closing below the psychological barrier of 3200, following heavy unloading by bull operators and institutional investors in the index-based scrips today.

Report of declining of net asset value of Unit Trust of India's US-64, downtrend in the world markets attracted speculative selling pressure on the prime counters, dealers said.

The bull liquidation at the heavy-weighted counters in view of end of settlement on the National Stock Exchange also aided the downtrend, they said.

Confusion over the report regarding American senate members' approval for the lifting of US sanctions on India also reflected in the market movements, leading stock brokers said.

Shares of the financial institutions like the ICICI, IDBI and IFCI were affected badly while infotech shares recovered partially towards the close after loosing moderately during the course of trading earlier, market sources said.

Reflecting the bearish phase, the 30-scrip BSE Sensex opened higher at 3230.84 points, touched the day's high of 3235.03, fell to touch the day's low of 3125.47 before closing at 3146.83 points, showing a net loss of 60.09 points over the previous close of 3206.92 points.

The foreign institutional investors made small purchases in the fundamentally strong scrips while domestic institutional investors and speculators pressed sales in the prime counters.

Leading BSE brokers said the market reacted positively to a news report filed by a wire agency that negotiations from the US house of representatives and senate voted on Monday authorising president for waiving the sanctions imposed on India for a year. However, there was also a report of senate members opposing the move to lift the sanctions, and this depressed the market sentiment, they added.

Report of the falling of NAV of UTI's flagship scheme, US-64 below the par value of Rs 10 also aided the downtrend.

The broad-based BSE-100 index declined by 25.61 points to 1396.84 points from the previous close of 1422.45 points. The BSE-200 and Dollex indices also eased by 5.52 and 2.17 points to 323.72 and 126.72 against the previous close of 329.24 and 128.89 points respectively.

Total turnover on the BSE's BOLT system shot up to Rs 17.11 billion against yesterday's turnover of Rs 14.85 billion.

Satyam Computers topped the list of turnover by registering highest turnover of Rs 4.30 billion followed by ITC Rs 2.03 billion, Zee Telefilms Rs 1.87 billion, Pentafour Software Rs 1.70 billion and Reliance Rs 862.5 billion.

Hectic activity was observed at the other counters like State Bank of India (Rs 800.7 million), Dr Reddy's (Rs 427.8 million), Castrol India (Rs 298.4 million), Infosys Tech (Rs 265.4 million), Digital Equipment (Rs 238.1 million), MTNL (Rs 237.2 million), BHEL (Rs 231.3 million), Grasim Industries (Rs 230.7 million), Tata Tea (Rs 208.3 million) and L&T (Rs 194 million).

Among the issues, Asian Hotels dropped by Rs 1.90 to Rs 151, Bajaj Auto fell by Rs 25 to Rs 650.25, BHEL Rs 2.50 to Rs 297.50, BSES Rs 4.90 to Rs 161.40, Castrol moved down by Rs 10 to Rs 610, Colgate Rs 4.70 to Rs 186.30, Glaxo Rs 19 to Rs 469.50, Hindustan lever Rs 24 to Rs 1665, ICICI eased by Rs 4.75 to Rs 54.70, Indian Rayon Rs 10 to Rs 116, Infosys Tech Rs 13.75 to Rs 2545, ITC down by Rs 8.25 to Rs 694, L&T down by Rs 5.60 to Rs 187, M&M down Rs 5.30 to Rs 186, NIIT Rs 26.75 to Rs 1355, Pentafour Software down Rs 21 to Rs 717, Reliance Rs 5 to Rs 120.70, State Bank Rs 4.30 to Rs 203.30, Tata Engineering Rs 3.50 to Rs 143.90, Tisco Rs 3.65 to Rs 143.90 and Zee Telefilms dropped sharply by Rs 38.75 to Rs 685.

Among the few gainers, Dr Reddy's increased by Rs 3.75 to Rs 512.25, Grasim Rs 10.50 to Rs 172.50, Ranbaxy Rs 1 to Rs 576, Satyam Computers Rs 2.50 to Rs 573.50.

UNI