Sensex struggles hard to be afloat, 54 pts down

Mumbai, Aug 07: The BSE sensetive index (Sensex) after opening in the red today struggled hard to break into the positive territory, however it could manage to do so only once and that too in the opening session itself.

The dull nature at the sensex was due to the firmness in the crude oil price, which again crossed the US Dollar 76 per barrel mark, and also due to the weak global counters.

The Nikkei average slipped sharply 2.23 per cent, during the day posting its biggest one-day fall in almost three weeks as rise in oil prices raised concerns about softer consumer spending in the United States, Japan's key export market. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.39 per cent, or 65.75 points to close at 16,953.55 while the TOPIX index lost 2.01 per cent to close at 1,540.12 points.

Major sectoral indices on the BSE too closed in the red. However there were few gainers too. Bankex grew 1.77 per cent to 4857.69 points, Consumer Durables up 0.90 per cent to 2751.50, FMCG went up by 0.02 per cent to 1857.61 and HC by 0.06 per cent to 3270.52 points.

Besides the sectors which led to the decline of the BSE were IT down 1.03 per cent to 3977.36, O&G down 1.10 per cent to 4943.89, Teck down 0.91 per cent to 2640.51 points and Auto which bore the brunt of the hike in crude price was down by 0.86 per cent to 4525.24 points on the index.

Major gainers on the BSE 30 sensex were ICICI up by 3.80 per cent to Rs 568.10, BHEl up by 1.68 per cent to Rs 2185.95, NTPC up by 0.88 per cent to Rs 120.60, Cipla up by 0.88 per cent to Rs 229.85, SBI up by 0.38 per cent to Rs 811.00, HDFC Bank up by 0.34 per cent to Rs 803.30, ITC up by 0.21 per cent to Rs 168.45, Reliance Communications up by 0.13 per cent to Rs 269.45 and Ranbaxy was up by 0.10 per cent to Rs 397.20.

The loser in the pack were- Wipro down by 2.72 per cent to Rs 493.55, Hero Honda down by 2.65 per cent to Rs 670.05, Satyam Computers was down by 2.18 per cent to Rs 738.00, Bharti Airtel was down by 2.16 per cent to Rs 392.00, Maruti Udyog was down by 1.91 per cent to Rs 768.80, Gujarat Ambuja was down by 1.70 per cent to Rs 104.10, ONGC was down by 1.69 per cent to Rs 161.60, Dr Reddy's Lab was down by 1.66 per cent to Rs 1403.35. TCS was down by 1.47 per cent to Rs 936.00, and L&T was down by 1.38 per cent to Rs 2209.95.

The breadth in the broader market was in favour of 1,239 declines as against 1,156 advances and 99 scrips that remain unchanged, out of total 2,486 scrips that traded on the BSE counter today.

UNI