Sensex opens weak ahead of budget session

Mumbai, Feb 29: The Sensex of BSE resumed below of 17,600 on pre budget mid-morning session and quoted low at 17,694.78 points with a massive loss of around 130 points from it last finish on offloading by FIIs traking weak global markets.

The key benchmark indices opened in the red and remained subdued in early trade due to bear phase global markets. IT and banking stocks fell. Reliance Industries declined. The market breadth was positive. Nifty saw a rollover of about 75 pc to March 2008 contracts from February 2008 contracts when February 2008 contracts expired yesterday, 28 February 2008. The market wide rollover was 72 pc to 73 pc. Later, the 30-share BSE Sensex was down 115.97 points or 0.65 per cent at 17,708.99. Sensex hit a low of 17,694.78 in early trade. At the day's low, Sensex lost 129.7 points.

The broader CNX S&P Nifty was down 15.95 points or 0.53 pc at 5,256.85,before it resumed flat at 5285 points.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.34 pc at 7,738.08, while the BSE Small-Cap was up 0.26 pc at 9,693.36. BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 642 crore.IT stocks drifted lower on sustained selling pressure by local operators as Wipro was down by 1.44 pc to Rs 4,39.10 followed by Infosys by 0.59 pc to Rs 1,590 and Satyam Computer Services by 0.64 pc to Rs 443.95 edged lower. However India's largest IT exporter Tata Consultancy Services rose by 0.53 pc to Rs 884.40.

Reliance Industries declined by 0.46 pc at Rs 2,525. HDFC Bank declined by 0.38 pc to Rs 1,464 after it said on Friday it would issue 2.62 crore shares and/or warrants to promoters, mainly top mortgage firm Housing Development Finance Corporation, for Rs 4000 crore. HDFC was down by 2.17 pc to Rs 2,715,followed by Tata Steel by 1.66 pc to Rs 810, Bharti Airtel by 1.69 pc to Rs 830.15 edged lower from the Sensex pack.

However, a few select scrips looked up on scattered bull support by FIIs on expection of libearal union budget. Larsen&Toubro rose by 0.37 per cent to Rs 3,650.

Bharat Heavy Electricals was up by 0.96 pc to Rs 2,346 followed by ITC by 0.74 pc to Rs 203.50, Cipla by 0.73 pc to Rs 207.55, Bajaj Auto by 0.65 pc to Rs 2,234 and Maruti Suzuki India by 0.6 pc to Rs 840, brokers added.

UNI