COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Political developments dampen sentiment; Sensex down 100 points, Nifty down 30 points

Political uncertainty at the Centre in wake of discomfort among the coalition partners of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre on various issues demoralised the investor sentiments at the Bombay Stock Exchange during the week ended February 6.

Indications of a tough Budget by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and withdrawal of support by the Sikkim Democratic Front, one of the smaller partners in the BJP-led coalition government also made the players cautious, dealers said.

Barring infotech, select pharma, telecom and FMCG shares, there was no follow-up buying support witnessed in the market.

The market also lost institutionalised buying during the week, they said.

Reflecting the bearish phase, the 30-scrip BSE Sensex crashed by 100.22 points to 3215.35 points as against the previous week's close of 3315.57 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 index declined sharply by 49.43 points to 1412.09 points from the previous close of 1461.52 points.

Barring some upward movements on Thursday, the market witnessed a bearish trend throughout the week. Few scrips from different groups like Cadbury rose by Rs 23 to Rs 783, Dr Reddy's shot up by Rs 43 to Rs 582, Hero Honda Rs 24.75 to Rs 611.50, Infosys Technologies up by Rs 275 to Rs 4975, ITC earned Rs 16.50 to Rs 817.50, NIIT Rs 100 to Rs 2217.50 and Novartis 36.75 to Rs 840.50.

Among the losers, ACC fell by Rs 91 to Rs 1000.50, Bajaj Auto Rs 10 to Rs 510, BSES 6.60 to Rs 145.50, Colgate 9.60 to Rs 169.60, German Remedies Rs 15 to Rs 689.25, Grasim Rs 22 to Rs 150.50, Hindalco Rs 26.50 to Rs 466.75, Larsen & Toubro Rs 14.70 to Rs 172.30, Reliance Rs 10.70 to Rs 121.90, Satyam Computers Rs 70.35 to Rs 860.25, State Bank of India Rs 15.80 to Rs 152 and Telco Rs 23 to Rs 187.80.

BSE-200 and Dollex indices eased by 10.67 and 4.09 points to 327.38 and 128.34 points as against the previous week's close of 338.05 and 132.43 points respectively.

Total turnover on the BSE, however, increased by Rs 8.40 billion to Rs 69.07 billion as against last week's total turnover of Rs 60.67 billion.

Dealers said that the future trend in the market also depends totally on the market-moving factors. The economic survey and Budget proposals will be the likely deciding factors.

The National Stock Exchange, the country's another leading bourse, also witnessed subdued trend during the last week.

The S&P CNX Nifty dropped significantly by 29.90 points to 936.30 points as against the last week's close of 966.20 points.

The CNX Nifty Junior lost by 42.80 points to 1649.70 points from the last Friday's close of 1692.50 points.

The CNX-Defty eased by 23.75 points to 763.95 points from the previous week's close of 787.70 points.

The CNX-500 and Midcap-200 also ended lower by 23.85 and 14.35 points to 650.01 and 575.37 points as against the last week's close of 673.86 and 589.72 points respectively.

Total turnover on the NSE during the week stood at Rs 102.53 billion.

UNI

Business news