Sensex trips down 10,000 first time since Feb 17

Mumbai, June 6: For the first time since February 17, the BSE Sensex today tripped the 10,000 mark and closed at 9,957.32 points.

In the intra-day trading, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index (Sensex) even touched a low of 9,885 points as the hike in petrol and diesel prices as well as poor performance of Asian markets affected the sentiments of the investors.

BSE heavy weight ONGC bore the brunt of selling as it will share large part of the oil subsidy burden. However, the refinery shares were mixed, following the announcement of a hike in product prices and cut in custom duties announced by the Government on Monday.

Asian stocks have fared poor after US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gloated that interest rates will keep rising in the world's biggest economy.

Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia were down between 0.29-2.7 per cent.

Also, all the BSE indices closed in the red. Consumer durables suffered severe loss and was down by 5.14 per cent to 2,789.29 points, metal indices followed with a loss of 4.06 per cent 7,921.49 points, FMCG suffered a loss of 3.98 to 1,771.24 points, midcap by 3.88 per cent to 5,645.57 points, PSU by 2.97 per cent to 4,964.49 points, auto was down by 2.36 per cent to 4,596.80 points. However, the BSE bankex indices remained unchanged.

Major scrips which gained on the Sensex were SBI up by 3.22 per cent, ICICI Bank up by 0.70 per cent and Hero Hond aup by 0.22 per cent.

The losers on the index were - Reliance Energy, L&T, Hindalco, ONGC, Ranbaxy, BHEL, ITC, NTPC, HLL, and Dr Reddy's Lab, all increasing by 3.00 to 8 per cent.

Major gainers on the index today were - State Bank of India, up by 3.22 per cent to Rs 840.75; ICICI by 0.70 to Rs 541.75 and Hero Honda was up by 0.22 per cent to Rs 758.40. The major losers were - Reliance Energy, down by 7.46 per cent to Rs 424.95, L&T was down by 5.96 per cent to Rs 2,128.65, Hindalco by 5.60 per cent to Rs 161.05, ONGC down by 5.59 per cent to Rs 1,040.55, Ranbaxy by 5.49 per cent to Rs 388.45, BHEL was down by 4.57 per cent to Rs 1,866.70, ITC was down by 4.41 per cent to Rs 152.90, NTPC down by 4.16 per cent to Rs 105.95, HLL was down by 3.83 per cent to Rs 224.55 and Dr Reddy's Lab was down by 3.00 per cent to Rs 1,269.55.

The breadth in the broader market was in favour of 2,087 declines with respect to 341 advances, out of total 2,459 scrips traded on the BSE.

UNI