Sensex slips by 143 point, closes at 13,871.71 pts

Mumbai, Jan 4 (UNI) 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.

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