Sensex opens down at 13,481.85 points

Mumbai, Sep 26: The Sensex of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Friday, Sep 26 opened low at 13,481.85 points with a loss of 65.33 points, from its last finish at Rs 13,547.18 points, on profit booking by local operators in view of bearish global cues.

Asian markets were also negative with Key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan declining between 0.6 per cent and 2.4 per cent, brokers said. IT and realty stocks led the fall on the domestic bourses in early trade. All the sectoral indices on BSE were negative. Infrastructure construction firm Jaiprakash Associates was the top gainer in the Sensex pack. Brokers said, at present BSE 30-share Sensex was down by 65.33 points or 1.35 per cent at 13,363.78. It hit the low and high at 13,333.13 and 13,486.20 points respectively, during the early trade.

The S &P CNX Nifty index of NSE also resumed low at 4,108.75 points from it last finish, later it went down by 59.85 points at 4050.70 points. The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.68 per cent at 5,058.45 and the BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.16 per cent at 6,040.54.

The market breadth was weak on BSE with 564 shares advancing as compared to 935 that declined. 53 shares remained unchanged.

Hindustan Unilever rose by 1.84 per cent at Rs 254.20, Reliance Infrastructure was up 0.56 per cent at Rs 882.50. ICICI Bank hiked 2.89 per cent at Rs 578.75.

TCS was down by three per cent at Rs 669.90, ONGC down three per cent at Rs 1,039, Grasim Industries eased by 2.97 per cent at Rs 1812, Mahindra &Mahindra reduced by 2.46 per cent at Rs 545.05, and Tata Steel by 2.15 per cent at Rs 474.35. They were the major losers in the from the Sensex pack.

Reliance Industries (RIL) fell by 0.47 per cent at Rs 2,015.50 followed by Infosys Technologies, which reduced by 1.86 per cent at Rs 1,477.

Private sector lender Axis Bank was the most active stock on BSE. The stock fell 0.79 pc at Rs 716 on a turnover of Rs 60.17 crore.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped by 196.89 points at 11,022.06 yesterday. The Standard&Poor's 500 Index was up 23.31 points or 1.97 per cent at 1,209.18. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 30.89 points or 1.43 per cent at 2,186.57, without affecting the t on Indian bources, brokers added.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) have been pulling out their investments from India and other emerging markets to shore up resources to beat the global liquidity crunch. In India, FIIs sold shares worth a net Rs 7,357.20 crore this month (till September 24 ). The outflow has reached Rs 35,871 crore in calendar year 2008.

UNI