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One trust vote savages Sensex by 246 points, crashes 6.8 pc to 3326.98

In an unprecedented turn of events, the Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex witnessed wild fluctuations of over 400 points. The 30-share benchmark index registered a whopping loss of 245 points at the close. Share prices fell sharply on huge offloading by operators who reacted to the fall of Vajpayee-led coalition government at the Centre.

''The market witnessed an across-the-board decline the moment the result of the trust vote in the Lok Sabha was announced,'' a leading BSE broker said.

Yesterday the barometer of the stock market witnessed a surge of 225 points on indications of survival of the government.

The 30-share BSE Sensex opened at 3694.11, touched the day's high of 3709.57 points and nosedived by 403.90 points to touch day's low of 3295.65 points, before closing at 3326.98 points, showing a net loss of 245.93 points or 6.88 per cent from the previous close of 3572.91 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 index also tumbled by 102.15 points to 1444.56 points from the previous close of 1547.21 points.

The BSE-200 and Dollex indices declined sharply by 22.75 points and 9.26 points to 330.79 and 128.80 points from the previous close of 353.54 and 137.66 points respectively.

Ajit Sanghvi, director, Malini Sanghvi Securities, a brokerage house at the Bombay Stock Exchange, stated that the 414-point flucutation in the Sensex reflects the nation's concern for stability and uncertainty of market-oriented Budget proposals.

Market has emerged as the most sensitive indicator of turmoil of political undercurrents.

Sanghvi said, in the short-term, markets could be volatile. However, it is unfortunate, when underlying fundamentals and real economy are showing early signals of turnaround with record agriculture growth, he added.

The scene on the National Stock Exchange was no different than the BSE where the S&P CNX Nifty lost by 77.50 points or 7.42 per cent at 966.95 points from the previous close of 1044.45 points. There were only sellers at the market and it is likely to fall further on monday, dealers said.

Vinod Gupta, an NSE member, has blamed political parties for creating such a situation which caused severe damage to the stock markets as well as the Indian economy.

Since the market was totally one-sided, none of the scrips could register a gain, dealers said. The current market favourite stocks like infotech, FMCG and pharma have suffered massive setbacks today, they added.

BSE president Anand Rathi said that the there would be an adverse effect on the country's economy in the case of non-passage of Budget presented by the BJP-led coalition government. Rathi, however, preferred not to comment on the major fall in the BSE Sensex.

Among the issues, Bajaj Auto fell by 23.50 to Rs 580, BHEL Rs 15.20 to Rs 175.70, BSES Rs 13 to Rs 152, Cadbury Rs 42.50 to Rs 578.75, Castrol Rs 56 to Rs 800, Colgate Rs 12.50 to Rs 168.50, Dabur India Rs 50 to Rs 569, Dr Reddy's Rs 51.25 to Rs 690, German Remedies Rs 56 to Rs 704.50, Hero Honda Rs 69.50 to Rs 799.75, Infosys Technologies Rs 158.25 to Rs 2,710, ITC Rs 68.75 to Rs 902, L&T Rs 6.60 to Rs 191.60, M&M Rs 10.70 to Rs 200.30, NIIT Rs 138 to Rs 1662, Satyam Computers Rs 106 to Rs 1222, SBI Rs 13.80 to Rs 158.80, Telco Rs 9.40 to Rs 142.80, Tisco Rs 6.60 to Rs 86.90 and Zee Telefilms Rs 47.50 to Rs 865.

Total turnover on the BOLT system rose sharply at Rs 21.39 billion compared to yesterday's turnover of Rs 13.17 billion.

Pentafour Software topped the list of turnover by registering the highest turnover of Rs 4.13 billion, Satyam Computers Rs 2.29 billion, ITC Rs 2.28 billion, Reliance Rs 1.06 billion, Infosys Technologies Rs 911.9 million and SBI Rs 775.5 million.

Other actively traded counters were ACC Rs 585.5 million, Zee Telefilms Rs 574.3 million, Tata Tea (Rs 545.9 million), Digital Equipment (Rs 427.2 million), L&T (Rs 335.3 million), BHEL (Rs 306.5 million), and Bajaj Auto (Rs 301.3 million).

UNI

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