Sensex falls further on sustained capital outflow; down 68 pts

Mumbai, Jan 31 (PTI) The BSE benchmark Sensex fell forthe fourth straight session today, losing over 68 points, tofive-month low on sustained selling by investors who wereconcerned that high input costs and rising interest rate woulddent corporate earnings.

Besides, global stock markets were weak and offered nosupport.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex, which lost755 points in the last three sessions fell further by 68.21points to 18,327.76, a level last seen in early September.

The index dipped to 18,038.48 points intra-day, beforerecovering in the last 30 minutes of buying in fundamentallystrong stocks that were available at attractive low levels.

In a similar fashion, the broad-based National StockExchange index Nifty lost 6.25 points to 5,505.90, aftertouching the day''s low of 5,416.65 points as stocks of realty,FMCG and tech sectors suffered the most.

While investors showed panic on rising input cost andhike in interest rate, foreign investors pared positions inview of unrest in Egypt.

Marketmen said that the gauge was the world�s worstperformer this year after Egypt and has lost over 10 per centfrom its record high level set on last Diwali. Stocks havefallen each day after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raisedinterest rates for the seventh time since last March to combataccelerating inflation.

Foreign funds sold a net Rs 13.97 billion rupees ofIndian equities on January 27. Asian stocks fell, draggingdown a regional benchmark index by the most in a week, asdemonstrations against Egypt�s government continued for asixth day and earnings reports disappointed investors.

The realty sector index suffered major losses, falling2.23 per cent to 2,228.78. Jaiprakash Associates dropped 4.69per cent to Rs 83.35 on fears that a further rise in interestrate would effect home sales.

The FMCG sector index fell 2 per cent to 3,366.20 asColgate, a maker of soaps and shampoo, dropped 2.29 per centto Rs 823.70, its lowest close since November 26 as its thirdquarter profit declined.

As selling pressure spread over a wide-front, smallcapindex fell by 0.80 per cent to 8,477.82 and midcap index by0.44 per cent to 6,868.35.