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Sensex sheds 110 points (3862.45), Nifty loses 44 points (1091.45) on Kargil news

Share prices tumbled across-the-board at the Bombay and National Stock Exchanges, following reports of escalation of tension on the Indo-Pak border.

The 30-share BSE Sensex opened lower by 9.54 points at 3963.76 points, scaled high to touch 4016.74 points in the morning session but crashed by more than 154 points to touch an intra-day low of 3862.45 points.

Immediately after news about shooting down of Indian planes reached the market, the index closed at the day's low, showing a net loss of 110 points from the previous close of 3973.30 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty Index at the National Stock Exchange also fell sharply by 44.05 points to 1091.45 points as against the previous close of 1135.50 points.

Dealers said though trading began on a cautious note, the market witnessed bullish phase in the morning on good buying interest from players, coupled with short covering by operators.

However, it took a U-turn in the last half-an hour, bringing down the Sensex by over 100 points in one shot.

Hindustan Ink, Smithkline Beecham, Ashok Leyland and Novartis were a few gainers in the falling market, dealers said.

Jignesh Shah, assistant vice-president (research), Triumph International Finance Limited, a broking firm in Bombay, said that the market is likely to react negatively further when it will open tomorrow.

The broad-based BSE-100 index lost 41.00 points to 1678.20 points as against the previous close of 1719.20 points.

The Sensex has lost nearly 198 points during last two consecutive trading sessions so far.

Majority of the prime counters hit the downward circuit-filters on both the BSE and the NSE, dealers said.

The securities that hit the circuit-filters after falling by eight per cent were Zee Telefilms, Square D software, McDowe, ICICI, NIIT, Nilkamal Plastic, Mahindra and Mahindra.

Prominent securities that suffered major losses were Reliance, ITC, SBI, Pentafour Software, Satyam Computer, Telco and Tata Tea.

Meanwhile, the BSE-200 and Dollex indices eased further by 8.70 and 3.70 points at 383.29 and 148.75 as against the previous close of 391.99 and 152.45 points respectively.

Total turnover on the BOLT system reported during the day was Rs 14.01 billion.

Satyam Computers topped the list of turnover by registering the highest turnover of Rs 1.94 billion, followed by SBI Rs 1.52 billion, Pentafour Software Rs 1.32 billion, Ranbaxy Rs 1.17.81 billion.

Other actively traded counters were ITC Rs 967.1 million, Reliance Rs 820.6 million, BPL Limited Rs 444.2 million, Zee Telefilms Rs 350.6 million, Infosys Technologies Rs 318.7 million, L&T Rs 298.4 million, Tisco Rs 247.9 million, Digital Equipment Rs 226.7 million, Tata Tea Rs 224.9 million, Hindustan Petroleum Rs 218.2 million and ACC Rs 199.2 million.

UNI

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