Sensex dampens all hope of recovery; sheds 369 pts

Mumbai, Jun 1: Soaked in Mumbai monsoon BSE sensitive index (Sensex) dampened all hopes of recovery and fell 369 points to close on 10,030 compared to the previous close of 10,398.61.

Earlier, in a choppy trade the markets opened at 10,442 and in an intra-day sessions oscillated between negatives and positives touching a low of 10,017 points and a high of 10,592 points showing a swing of 580 points.

Markets opened strong on positive global market performance, however, concerns over hike in the Federal Interest Rate to be implemented by mid-June, as well as apprehension over increase in domestic oil prices have resulted in subdued performance of sectoral indices on the Sensex, especially of Metals and Oil&Gas, which have declined by 6.5 and 3.5 per cent, respectively.

All the sectoral indices have closed in red, the BSE midcap was down by 3.15 per cent at 4,893.23, smallcap by 3.78 per cent to 6,123.59, PSU sector by 2.99 per cent to 5080.04, Auto indices by 5.31 tp 4,556.46, Bankex by 1.01 per cent to 4,721.87, Capital goods sector was down by 3.72 per cent to 7,070.13, Consumer Durables sector was down by 2.64 per cent to 2,971.79, FMCG sector was down by 3.81 per cent 1,817.59, BSE IT was down 3.65 per cent to 3,509.60, metals was down by 6.45 to 8,110.72 and finally Oil&Gas was down by 3.35 to 4,915.02.

The major Gainers on the BSE index were ICICI and BHEL gaining 0.22 and 0.04 per cent, respectively.

Besides, the major losers on the index were Maruti Udyog, Hindalco, Tata Motors, L&T, Hero Honda, Tata Steel, Bharti Tele Ventures, Reliance Energy, Satyam and Bajaj Auto, all losing between 4.5 to 7.5 per cent mark.

Also, the Securities transaction tax (STT) proposed in Union Budget 2006-07 came into effect today. STT on delivery-based trade has been raised from 0.1 per cent of the value of the transaction to 0.125 per cent on both buy and sale sides.

STT for day traders has been raised to 0.025 per cent from 0.02 per cent. This is applicable only at the point of sale and it is not applicable on purchases.

STT on F&O trades has been raised to 0.017 per cent from 0.0133 per cent, applicable on sales and not applicable on purchases.

Top gainers on the Sensex today were ICICI Bank gaining 0.22 at 537.25 and BHEL gaining by 0.04 to 1903.30. Besides, the major losers were Maruti Udyog Ltd declining by 7.23 per cent to 681.75, Hindalco by 6.41 at 166.50, Tata Motors by 6.24 to 740.40, L&T by 5.95 to 2,180.40, Hero Honda by 5.40 to 729.20, Tata Steel by 5.35 to 489.05, Bharti Tele ventures by 5.11 to 347.25, Reliance Energy by 5.05 to 468.25, Satyam by 4.79 to 658.05, Bajaj Auto by 4.65 to 2,617.15.

The breadth in the broader market was in favour of 1,996 declines with respect to 438 advances out of total 2,474 scrips traded at the BSE.

UNI