Sensex loses 64.89 pts in volatile trade: closes at 14,188.49

Mumbai, Feb 21 (UNI) The 30-scrip Sensitive Index of the Bombay Stock Exchange today crashed by 64.89 points and closed at a low of 14,188.49 points amid concerns over a further hike in the cash reserve ratio (CRR) and the Bank of Japan's (BoJ) decision to hike interest rate by 25 basis points.

Participants were seen reluctant to build up positions ahead of expiry of February series derivatives contracts, brokers said.

Shrugging off a volatile start and a subsequent setback, the market spurted to higher levels in early afternoon trade, thanks to a good rally in metal, capital goods and auto stocks.

But the bears, having turned quite stubborn a little past mid afternoon, thwarted whatever little resistance the bulls offered and dragged the benchmark indices, Sensex and the Nifty to a negative close in the end.

Information technology, FMCG and a few oil stocks were among the major losers in today's sell-off. Even as select auto, metal and consumer durables stocks held on to their gains, bank and capital goods stocks caved in on selling pressure and surrendered most of their gains. Not much buying was seen in the midcap and smallcap space in afternoon trade.

The Sensex, which touched a high of 14,312.88 in intra-day trades, ended the day with a loss of 64.89 points or 0.46 per cent at 14,188.49, around 31 points off its low of 14,157.72.

The Nifty index of NSE, which swung in an intra-day range of around 52 points, hit a high of 4132.80 and a low of 4080.90 points, before closing at 4096.20, netting a loss of 10.75 points or 0.26 per cent, market analysts said.

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