Weak market breadth

Mumbai, Nov 28 (UNI) Rumors of firing outside the Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) sparked renewed selling after the key benchmark indices rose near the after day's early high on better-than-expected economic growth data.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak as the battle between the police and terrorists was still going on at the Nariman House and at Trident hotel in south Mumbai more than 36 hours after the terror attacks in Mumbai on the night of November 26.

Volatility was high. After an initial fall caused by the terror attacks, the market bounced back with the global rating agency Standard&Poor's (S&P) stating that attacks were an isolated case and that it does not expect any negative implications on India's macroeconomic activities or the government's fiscal position from the attacks. After moving in a narrow range, the market weakened again in early afternoon trade, a leading broker said.

The BSE Sensex swung by 188.43 points between the day's high and low so far.

Volatility may continue in the remaining part of the day as the derivative contracts for the November 2008 series expired today.

The BSE 30-share Sensex was down by 79.59 points, or 0.88 per cent, to 8,947.13. The Sensex opened 137.54 points lower at 8,889.18, which is also its day's low so far. At the day's high of 9,077.61, the Sensex gained 50.89 points in early trade. The S &P CNX Nifty was down by 38.25 points, or 1.39 per cent to 2,714 Among the 30-member Sensex pack, 20 declined while the rest advanced. Grasim was down by 2.83 per cent to Rs 892, Reliance Communications was down by 2.62 per cent to Rs 193.25 and NTPC eased by 2.16 per cent to Rs 160.75 Reliance Industries (RIL) slipped by 0.42 per cent to Rs 1,132.45, recovering sharply from day's low of Rs 1,037. Banking shares dropped despite a further fall in inflation, which raised hopes of a rate cut by the central bank. ICICI Bank (down 2.50 per cent to Rs 341.75), HDFC Bank (down 1.75 per cent to Rs 892.25), and State Bank of India (down 3.35 per cent to Rs 1,067.25), slipped. PVR (down 6.51 per cent to Rs 67.50), Fame (down 2.15 per cent to Rs 14.95), and Adlabs Films (down 1.96 per cent to Rs 152.55), declined, brokers added.

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