Sensex slips by 143 point, closes at 13,871 pts

Mumbai, Jan 4: The Sensex today closed lower at 13,871.71 on the Bombay Stock Exchange with a loss of 143.21 points on sustained heavy sellling pressure by Foreign Institutional Investors (FFI's) and some mutual funds.

The market, which had opened on a firm note, came under severe selling pressure as the day progressed. It saw sharp swings either way in early trade.

The 30-shares BSE Sensex settled 143.21 points or 1.02 per cent, at 13,871.71. It had opened firm, at 14,029.04, on reports that the Centre and states had agreed to phase out central sales tax (CST) over the next four years. It had surged to hit an all-time high of 14,060.35 in early trade.

The Sensex hit a low of 13,850.38 in late trading. It swung around 210 points for the day.

The BSE METAL and IT indices crashed steeply by 156.66 and 80.68 points respecstively and closed at 8966.93 points for METAL index and for IT index at 5369.83 points, followed by BANKEX index by 48.49 points and touched 7094.87 points. TECK index was down by 46.78 and quoted at 3702.32 points, AUTO index by 41.42 points and closed at 5681.18 points and FMCG by 40.16 points and quoted at 1886.94 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE was down by 35.25 points or 0.88 per cent to 3988.80 points before it resumed high at 4,027.30 points.

The index recorded a high at 4,041.00 and a low at 3979.80 points during the session.

The market breadth, however, stayed strong as buying continued for small-cap and mid-cap stocks. There were close to 1.5 gainers for every loser on BSE. Against 1,525 shares advancing, 1085 declined on BSE. A total of 65 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 4,508 crore as compared to Rs 4,312 crore on Wednesday. Among the 30- Sensex pack, 24 declined while the rest advanced.

The Nikkei finished up 127.84 points, at 17,353.67, the highest close since April 21, 2006. Tokyo markets were open for a half day of business on Thursday. They were closed Monday through Wednesday for the New Year holiday.

Hang Seng index was down by 1.92 per cent, while Straits Times (down 0.46 per cent) and Seoul Composite (down 0.86 per cent) also edged lower.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 11.37 points, or 0.09 per cent, to end at 12,474.52. The Standard&Poor's 500 Index slipped 1.67 points, or 0.12 %, to finish at 1,416.63.

The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 7.87 points, or 0.33 per cent,to close at 2,423.16.

After Q3 results, the market will be eyeing the Union Budget 2007-08. A build up of long positions is likely on expectations of favourable policy announcements in the budget, according to dealers.

MUMBAI ITC was the top loser, down by 3.76 per cent to Rs 168.75, on a high volume of 26.73 lakh shares. It had touched a high of Rs 176.85 in opening trade. Hero Honda (down 3 per cent to Rs 755), Reliance Communications (down 1.96 per cent to Rs 463.55) and Hindalco (down 3.12 per cent to Rs 174) were the other losers.

Frontline IT shares came under selling pressure after their recent rally. Satyam Computer lost 2.53 per cent to Rs 502.10, on a total volume of 20.57 lakh shares. A block deal of 14.2 lakh shares was executed in the stock on BSE at Rs 514.50.

TCS (down 0.92 per cent to Rs 1269.50), Wipro (down 2.43 per cent to Rs 605.25) and Infosys (down 1.28 per cent to Rs 2283) also edged lower.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) was down 0.34 per cent to Rs 1280.40 on 11.47 lakh shares. The stock touched a high of Rs 1300, while its low was Rs 1277.

However, Pharma major Dr Reddy's was the top gainer, up 1.81 per cent to Rs 823.15, on 2.89 lakh shares. It had struck a high of Rs 835.

L&T gained 0.93 per cent to Rs 1490, for the second day in a row, after the company said on Wednesday it had bagged an overseas order worth over Rs 400 crore.

Tata Motors gained 0.90 per cent to Rs 947.50, after its ADR jumped 6.1 per cent on Wednesday to USD 21.69.

Shares of oil marketing firms edged higher after crude oil futures fell below a barrel due to mild weather in US, the world's largest heating oil market. US crude oil for February delivery fell USD 2.73, or 4.5 percent, to settle at USD 58.32 a barrel on Wednesday. Besides the sharp fall in crude oil price, increase in aviation turbine fuel price hike carried out by oil firms also aided the upmove in their share prices today.

HPCL surged 4.08 per cent to Rs 288, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) rose 4.46 per cent to Rs 469.80 and BPCL gained 1.95 per cent to Rs 345.

Info Edge was the top traded counter on BSE with total turnover of Rs 120.53 crore followed by Unitech (Rs 107.66 crore) and Reliance Industries (Rs 107.63 crore), brokers said.

UNI