Sensex ends marginally lower by 66.02 points

Mumbai, Sep 1: The key benchmark Sensex on Monday, Sep 1 eased slightly by 66.02 points and ended lower at 14,498.51 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on profit booking at higher levels by Foreign Institutional Investors and local operators.

Brokers said top heavyweight stocks showed smart recovery in last half an hour of trade and ended marginally lower as heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ONGC, HDFC Bank, ITC, SBI, BHEL and Satyam supported frontline indices. Sell-off continued in metal, telecom, select power auto and technology stocks, while buying was seen in oil and banking stocks. Markets had opened lower on the back of weak global cues and traded sharply lower towards the end of the session.

The Sensex closed with a loss of 66.02 points or 0.45 per cent at 14,498.51.

The Nifty lost 11.35 points or 0.26 pc to settle at 4348.65.
BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 3403 crore as against Rs 5,430.84 crore on August 29. Turnover traded in markets stood at Rs 52,623.97 crore. This includes Rs 9,838.12 crore from NSE cash segment, Rs 37,943.16 crore from NSE F &O and balance Rs 4,842.69 crore from BSE cash segment.

Experts believe that overall trend is still negative in markets.

Nandan Chakraborty, Head Of Research at Enam Securities, feels that currently the markets are seeing a bear market rally. He did not anticipate a strong bull rally right now.

A leading stock-broker said the overall trend in market is still down and the rally from 12,500-15,000 is over and done with.

According to him, the markets may slip to 10,000 levels this year or early next year and may then start moving up gradually over next three years. He sees the Sensex bottom within the 10,000-12,500 range. He believes that the market could double from lows but that may be short-lived.

European market were trading lower. Key benchmark indices in UK, France and Germany were down 0.51 pc to 0.89 pc. Asian stocks dropped today, amid concerns about the impact of weaker global demand on the region's economies. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, South Koera, Singapore, Taiwan and China were down by between 0.95 per cent to 4.06 per cent which affected to downward trend at the Indian bources, brokers pointed out.

On the BSE, indices showed a mixed trend as leading BSE METAL declined steeply by 133.91 points to end in red at 12,214.11 points, followed by CD index by 40.17 to 3800.62 points, TECK index by 27.27 to 3046.32 points, CG index by 22.84 to 11,863.78 points, IT index by 12.58 to 3954.17 points and Auto index by 11.82 to 3989.41 points.

However, top BSE indices looked up modestly on scattered bull support by local operators. BSE OILS &GAS index rose modestly by 29.12 to close firm at 9688.58 points, PSU index was up by 21.11 to 6768.18 points, BANKEX index by 11.66 to 7021.35 points and FMCG index moved up by 5.03 to 2220.63 points.

Similarly, top heavyweight stocks also crashed toward end of the session. L&T declined by Rs 27.80 to end in red at Rs 2562.05, Infosys Tech came down by Rs 25.20 to Rs 1723.30, Bharti Airtel was down by Rs 20.95 to Rs 816.25, Ranbaxy Lab eased by Rs 18.70 to Rs 499.80, Maruti Suzuki dropped by Rs16.65 to Rs 633.75, Tata STeel came down by Rs 16.05 to Rs 584.30 and Tata Power slipped by Rs 11.95 to Rs 1039.05.

However, HDFC Bank was up by Rs 18.85 to finish firm at Rs 1296.10, BHEL gained by Rs 15.35 to Rs 1721.90, SBI moved up by Rs 12.40 to Rs 1416.00, ONFC rose by Rs 6.50 to Rs 1029.80, Grasim Ind was up by Rs 5.55 to Rs 1943, Satyam Comp gained by Rs 3.55 to Rs 423.40, Reliance and ACC were up by Rs 3.80 and Rs 2.55 respectively, quoted at Rs 2140.55 and Rs 564.20.

UNI