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Kargil Effect: Sensex sheds 89 more points (3773.32), Nifty loses 10 points (1081.50)

Share prices declined sharply on the third straight day due to increased tension at the Indo-Pak border following India's ongoing operations against infiltrators, pushing down the 30-scrip BSE Sensex yet another 89 points amidst volatile session at the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The Sensex opened on a bearish note at 3805.44 points, sharply lower from the previous close of 3862.53 points, touched day's high of 3840.27 points at around 1000 hrs IST due to huge short covering and squaring up of positions by major players on account of last day of current settlement.

However, the Sensex nosedived from the day's high to touch day's low of 3675.53 points between 1400-1415 hrs IST showing an intra-day loss of 167 points on knowing that India lost its helicopter engaged in Kargil operation.

The defence minister's statement that infiltrators are on the run in Kashmir in the later part of the day encouraged the marketmen. This helped the Sensex to recover a bit towards the end. Good buying support from the Unit Trust of India also was one of the reason for the recovery at the fag end, dealers said.

The Sensex finally ended at 3773.32 points, showing a net loss of 88.92 points from the previous close of 3862.45 points.

The Sensex has lost nearly 287 points in the last three straight sessions.

The broad-based BSE-100 index lost by 41.23 points to 1636.97 points as against the previous close of 1678.20 points.

BPL, Ashok Leyland, Reliance, ITC, Telco, Reckit and Colman, BHEL, Britannia, Concor, Hero Honda, Century Enka emerged as gainers even in the bearish phase, dealers said and added that most of the prime counters witnessed major losses.

According to marketmen, there was speculative selling pressure mainly from operators at most of the counters and the FIIs were not seen actively participating in the selling spree.

Institutional interest was seen concentrated at the counters like Cipla, HDFC, IDBI, MTNL, Nestle, Pentafour Software, Siemens, State Bank of India and Tisco.

The BSE-200 and Dollex indices moved down further by 10.51 and 4.38 points to 372.78 and 144.37 points as against the previous close of 383.29 and 148.75 points respectively.

The S&P CNX Nifty index registered a loss of 9.95 points to 1081.50 points from the previous close of 1091.45 points.

Total turnover on the BOLT system reported during the day was Rs 17.47 billion.

Satyam Computers registered the highest turnover at Rs 1.95 billion, SBI Rs 1.85 billion, Pentafour Software Rs 1.69 billion, ITC Rs 1.49 billion, Reliance Rs 1.27 billion.

Other actively traded counters were Ranbaxy (Rs 936.2 million), Zee Telefilms (Rs 832.6 million), L&T (Rs 832.6 million), MTNL (Rs 448.4 million), Infosys Technologies (Rs 436.4 million), Tata Tea (Rs 384.6 million), BPL Limited (Rs 369 million), Telco (Rs 355 million), Digital Equipment (Rs 327.9 million) and Tisco (Rs 255.1 million).

UNI

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