Sensex sheds 180 pts, crude oil price at an all-time high

Mumbai, July 14: The BSE sensex tumbled 180 points as the fire enraged by the hike in crude oil price engulfed the markets around the globe.

According to experts, the crisis in the mid-east over the present Israel and Lebanon air strikes has fuelled the hike in the oil price, which crossed the all-time high mark of USD 78 per barrel mark, and it is likely to touch USD 80 per barrel mark if the war-like situation persits.

However, the OPEC countries have denied that they will increase their production capacity in the light of the current situation.

On the hindsight, the Indian government may increase the price of petrol if the crude prices in India cross the USD 71 per barrel mark, experts added.

The BSE sensitive index today closed in the red at 10,678.22 points, also affected by the hike in the interest rate of the Bank Of Japan (BoJ) by 25 basis points.

All the BSE sectoral indices were in the red today. Led by Metals sector which declined by 2.20 per cent, Capital goods followed with a decline of 2.01 per cent and others suffered a similar fate, down between 0.80 to 1.74 per cent.

Major gainers on the index were - Hero Honda, SBI, Reliance Energy, TCS, NTPC and Reliance Communications, all up between 0.26 per cent to 1.12 per cent.

Major gainers on the index were- Hero Honda up by 1.12 per cent to Rs 718.15, SBI up by 0.83 per cent to Rs 737.65, Reliance Energy up by 0.56 per cent to Rs 446.10, TCS up by 0.39 per cent to Rs 1875.50, NTPC up by 0.30 per cent to Rs 118.30 and Reliance Communications up by 0.26 per cent to Rs 269.20.

Major losers were Hindalco down by 4.06 per cent to Rs 174.90, Tata Motors down by 3.87 per cent to Rs 739.85, Grasim Industries lost 3.70 per cent to Rs 1963.95 and Satyam COmputers lost 3.21 per cent to Rs 721.60. Other losers on the index lost between 2.37 per cent to Rs 2.71 per cent.

The breadth in the broader market was in the favour of 1,373 declines as against 985 advances out of total 446 scrips traded on the BSE.

UNI