Sensex sheds 215 pts amidst weak global cues

Mumbai, Mar 15: The Bechmark sensitive index of the Bombay Stock Exchange hit a six-month low to shed 215 points on weak global cues even as Nifty was down by 25.8 points in the week ended Feburary 14. The Indian bourses felt the heat during the week as the Asian markets witnessed severe melt-down on worries over US Economy facing liquidity vacuum due to sub-prime mortgage crisis, marketmen said.

Marketmen maintained that a mix of reported international and domestic negative developments, including rising crude oil and Gold prices along with backhome upsurge in inflation coupled with tumbling index of industrial production, kept the market depressed and volatile throughout the week.

Sensex declined 1.35 per cent to 15,760.52 during the week and the broader CNX S &P Nifty index of National Stock Exchange shed 0.54 percent to 4745.80. BSE Mid-Cap lost 220.94 points or 3.25 per cent to 6,583.45 and Small-Cap index slipped 329.68 points or 3.92 per cent to 8,079.50.

Realty, metal and power stocks dragged the indices up and down as they witnessed the maximum fluctuations on alternate bouts of buying and selling pressure.

Indian bourses went through a major setback on March 13 as share prices fell almost across the board on account of the global carnage. Markets across the globe melt down amidst concerns about the effectiveness of the Federal Reserve efforts to aid strained US credit markets. Sensex slumped 770.63 points or 4.78 per cent at 15,357.35. On the same day, Sensex hit a low of 15,228.99 to lowest level since early September 18' 2007. Nifty tumbled 242.40 points or 5.10pc at 4,623.60 on that day.

The badly hit benchmark indices rebounded by 403.17 points in the last session of the week. However, the market breadth remained negative throughout the week, market analyists said.

''During most of the sessions the market witnessed lack of buying interest as investors felt safe to keep themselves away on the condition of uncertainty,'' a senior broker with a leading broking company said.

It was only when indices ended at their lowest, investors turned in to buy the stocks at the lower level but still the volume remained low, he added.

Further, brokers are of the view that market is under a correction mode and further slump downward is possible as the global slowdown is likely to continue for few more months.

UNI