Sensex resumes low at 19,197.57 points

Mumbai, Nov 21: The BSE sensitive index today resumed low at 19,197.57 points with a massive loss nearly by 83 points from its last close of 19,280.80 points on profit booking at high levels by FIIs and local financial institutional investors.

Brokers said, ''The market declined in the early trade due to selling pressure in banking and IT majors. It soon recovered from lower levels. Reliance Industries declined. Market breadth was strong. BSE Mid Cap&Small Cap indices outperformed Sensex.

Asian markets were trading in red. US markets ended positive on Tuesday, 20 November 2007.

Media reports that the government is considering raising the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) to 0.5 per cent also weighed on impact sentiment. Finance Minister P Chidambaram could move an appropriate ammendment to the Finance Act, 2007, in Parliament in the current winter session for raising STT, reports suggest.

Later, the 30-share BSE Sensex was down by 132.62 points or 0.69 pc at 19,205.51. At day's low of 19,070.50 Sensex had lost 210.28 points from its last close.

The broader CNX S&P Nifty was down by 107.9 points or 1.86 pc at 5,753, before it resumed low at 5778.80 points from its last close of 5780.90 points. The Nifty index recorded a low at 5670.80 points in intra-day trade.

The BSE Mid-Cap index rose by 0.5 pc to 8,669.19 and the BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.9 per cent to 10,794.93. Both these indices outperformed Sensex.

Index heavyweight and India's largest private sector firm by market capitalisation Reliance Industries declined by 0.42 pc to Rs 2,775.25. As per reports, Reliance Industries (RIL) has signed Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) for two exploratory blocks 34 and 37 located in the Jeza basin of eastern Yemen, taking its total number of overseas exploratory blocks to nine.

FMCG major ITC rose by 0.18 pc to Rs 196.90 and was the top gainer from Sensex pack. As per reports it is preparing for a series of acquisitions to strengthen its food business, the fastest growing segment among the new businesses under its umbrella.

Banking majors declined. HDFC Bank was down by 3.84 pc to Rs 1,569, followed by ICICI Bank by 1.56 pc to Rs 1,149 and State Bank of India by 0.86 pc to Rs 2,260.

IT stocks lost further ground. Wipro eased by 2.15 pc to Rs 439, Satyam Computer Services dropped by 0.97 pc to Rs 414.50, Tata Consultancy Services came down by 0.7 pc to Rs 952.85 and Infosys declined by 0.28 pc to Rs 1,560 edged lower.

Tata Steel rose by 1.79 pc to Rs 874.90. As per reports, Riversdale Mining, Tata Steel's partner in Australia, has discovered around 1.2 billion tonnes of coal at northern Benga in the Moatize district of Mozambique which happens to be the world's largest unexplored coal province.

DLF was up by 1.32 pc to Rs 919.85, Cipla hiked by 0.4 pc to Rs 186.65 and Reliance Energy rose by 0.32 pc to Rs 1,800 edged higher.

NTPC was down by 1.52 pc to Rs 256.45, Bharat Heavy Electricals came down by 1.59 pc to Rs 2,612 and ONGC eased by 1.35 pc to Rs 1,205.

Religare Enterprises was hovering at Rs 569, a premium of 207.57 pc over IPO price of Rs 185. It was listed on the bourses today.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers to the tune of Rs 4,201.14 crore in the futures&options segment on Tuesday, 20 November 2007. According to data released by the NSE, FIIs were net sellers of index futures to the tune of Rs 2,897.67 crore and bought index options worth Rs 35.34 crore. They were net sellers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 1,334.46 crore and sold stock options worth Rs 4.36 crore.

As per provisional data, FIIs sold shares worth a net Rs 1800.68 crore in the cash market on Tuesday, 20 November 2007.

Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) were net buyers of shares worth Rs 463.95 crore on Tuesday, 20 November 2007.

Asian markets fell today after the Federal Reserve said US economic growth would probably slow in 2008. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down by 3.43 pc at 26,805.80 followed by Japan's Nikkei by 1.79 pc at 14,939.62, Singapore's Straits Times by 1.41 pc at 3,389.82, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted by 1.29 pc at 8,568.65, South Korea's Seoul Composite by 2.61 pc at 1,822.57 which affected to downward trend in Indian bournces, brokers said.

UNI