Sensex slips by 85 pts, closes low at 13,566.53 pts

Mumbai, Jan 9: The sensitive index of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)today crashed by 85.82 points and closed at 13,566.53 points ascompared to 13,652.15 points yesterday on sustained heavy offloading byForeign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and mutual funds, brokers said.

The market, after opening positive on back of a recovery in theAsian markets, slipped into the red as profit-booking began. IT stocksled the fall on concerns that an appreciating rupee will impactprofitability. With today's fall, the markets have extended theirlosses into the fourth straight day.

The 30-shares BSE Sensex lost 85.82 points to finish at 13,652.15points. It had also surged to an intra-day high of 13,748.42, theintra-day low being 13,493.38 points.

The BSE Consumer Goods (CG) and BANKEX indices also plummeted by122.90 points and 66.27 points respectively to close at 8,976.16 pointsand 7,016.63 points respectively. They were followed by PSU index,which slumped by 48.88 points, to close at 6,077.49 points.

IT index declined by 44.27 points and touched to 5,160.61 points,AUTO index by 41.38 points and closed at 5,485.34 points, METAL indexby 39.31 points and touched at 8,775.22 points, SML CAP index by 38.75points and quoted at 7,211.89 points, HC index by 36.45 points andclosed at 3,791.33 points, TECK index by 30.68 points and touched at3,559.86 points and MID CAP index by 29.30 points and closed at5,882.31 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) alsolost 22 points to end at 3,911.40 points, before it resumed flat at3,933.30 points. The index recorded a high at 3,963.75 points and a lowat 3,890.75 points respectively.

The market-breadth, which was strong in the first half of thetrading session, turned negative. About 1,274 shares rose on BSE and1,369 declined, while a total of 54 shares were unchanged.

The total turnover on BSE surpassed the previous day's, notchingRs 4,698 crore, as compared to Rs 3,731 crore yesterday. A lot of blockdeals were struck on BSE, as also a debut of Cairn India resulted inthe high turnover. Among the 30-Sensex pack, 19 declined while the restadvanced.

The Nikkei index of Japan Stock Exchange climbed 146.18 points to17,237.77. Expectations that the Bank of Japan may raise interest ratesat a policy meeting next week also helped shares of banks.

US stocks advanced on Monday, led by tech shares, as brokerageupgrades on bellwether companies such as International BusinessMachines (IBM) Corp boosted the investors' optimism.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 25.48 points, or 0.21 percent, at 12,423.49. The Standard&Poor's 500 Index was up 3.13points, or 0.22 per cent, at 1,412.84.

The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 3.95 points, or 0.16 per cent, at 2,438.20.

Expectations that a mid-week US government report will show domestic inventories rising, also softened prices.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery dropped 35 cents to USD55.74 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York MercantileExchange in Singapore. The contract fell 22 cents to settle at USD56.09 a barrel on Monday on record January winter temperatures inNortheast US, brokers said.

Frontline IT stocks sold heavily. IT stocks led the fall on concernsthat an appreciating rupee will impact profitability. The BSE IT indexlost 0.85 per cent, among the BSE sectoral indices. Satyam Computerswas the top loser, down 4.40 per cent, to Rs 465.

Infosys lost 0.59 per cent to Rs 2,193.

Reliance Communications lost 2.10 per cent to Rs 426.20 on avolume of 29.71 lakh shares following reports that it plans to raise upto US 1.2 billion dollars by a Global Depositary Receipt issue.

HDFC Bank dropped 1.73 per cent to Rs 1010, after the company-scotched rumours of a bonus issue.

HDFC (down 1.73 per cent to Rs 1565), SBI (down 3.30 per cent toRs 1172.90) and Tata Motors (down 2.33 per cent to Rs 906) were theother losers.

However, Gujarat Ambuja Cements was the top gainer, up 2.45 percent, to Rs 140, after a huge block deal of 2.25 crore shares wasexecuted in the counter at Rs 136.65 per share, in opening trade.

PSU oil explorer ONGC advanced 1.45 per cent to Rs 924.10, aftersurging to a high of Rs 935.90. US crude oil fell below USD 56 a barrelas winter weather remained unusually warm in the United States.

It had slipped to a low of Rs 908.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 0.46 per cent toRs 1,283 on a volume of 4.71 lakh shares. It had also surged to a highof Rs 1,288.

A lot of block deals were struck on BSE today, the notable onesbeing Pyramid Saimira (2.65 lakh shares at Rs 198 per share), FederalBank (3.40 lakh shares at Rs 227 per share), Donear Industries (2.53lakh shares at Rs 228), MICO (1 lakh shares at Rs 3,522.90 per share)and Adhunik Metaliks (10 lakh shares at Rs 37.75 per share).

The highlight of today's trade was a weak debut by oil explorerCairn India, which traded in discount throughout the day's tradingsession. The stock settled at a steep discount at Rs 137.50 on BSE onhigh volumes of 3.26 crore shares. Cairn India debuted at Rs 140 onBSE, a discount of 12.50 per cent as compared to the IPO price of Rs160 per share. It moved within the price range of Rs 155 and Rs 128.65,brokers added.

UNI

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