Sensex closes in red at 74.98 points

Mumbai, June 4: The Sensex today crashed by 74.98 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to settle in the red at 14,495.77 as selling accentuated at the fag end of the trading session after negative sentiment prevailed over panicky Chinese bourses.

The benchmark index, which had surged to highest level above 14,650 in nearly four months since February 9, this year, at the onset of the trading session, started declining since afternoon trade. It had earlier opened firmer at 14, 618.78, to touch an intra-day high of 14,683.36 and low of 14,465.68 The S&P CNX Nifty Index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) which had advanced above the 4,350 level, to strike an all time high of 4,362.95, during intra-day, finally settled 30 points lower at 4,267.05. It had opened marginally higher at 4,300.70.

Market analysts revealed that the total turnover on the BSE was Rs 3745 crore. The market breadth was negative here as 1,398 shares declined while only 1,172 advanced and 95 remained unchanged. The breadth turned negative in early afternoon trade from a strong breadth at the onset of the trading session. In morning session, there were over 2 gainers for every loser on BSE, they pointed out adding that among the Sensex pack, 19 declined while the rest advanced.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers to the tune of approximately Rs 373.38 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought net shares worth Rs 319.84 crore during the last trading session, traders disclosed.

The few prominent gainers today included Hindalco Industries, State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank, HDFC and ICICI Bank.

The losers included Tata Motors, Hero Honda Motors, Bajaj Auto, Cipla, Grasim, Bhel, Satyam Computers, TCS, Infosys, Wipro and Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) Chinese stocks fell sharply today following government efforts to cool the market boom that authorities worry could create a dangerous price bubble. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was down 8.26 per cent at 3, 670.41 after a 2.7 per cent decline during the last trading session.

The Chinese government had raised taxes on trading last week in an effort to cool a frenzied market that by last week had pushed up prices more than 50 per cent before they began to decline. Even with today's fall, the Shanghai market is still up more than 40 per cent since the start of the year after rising 130 per cent in 2006, analysts noted.

However, most of the other Asian market held gains. Hang Seng index rose 126.72 points or 0.62 per cent to 20,729.59 while Nikkei 225 index gained 14.54 points or 0.08 per cent to 17,973.42. Wall Street carved out a solid advance last week, after data on job creation, manufacturing and inflation injected the market with renewed confidence about the economy and sent major indexes to record closes. The Standard&Poor's 500 index was the biggest gainer among the major indicators and moved toward its all-time high.

The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 40.47 points, or 0.30 per cent, to 13,668.11, with the Dow closing on all time high for the 26th session in the year. The Dow also set a fresh intra-day high of 13,692.

Broader stock indicators also gained to end a week that saw stocks advance amid several favourable economic figures and the continued hum of corporate takeover activity. The Standard&Poor's 500 index rose 5.72 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 1,536.34. The S&P traded as high as 1,540.56 and advanced toward its record trading high of 1,552.87 set in March 2000.

Oil prices slipped today, after three days of gains as a major US gasoline pipeline resumed pumping and some Nigerian militants called a one-month truce, although analysts saw little to suggest an end to 18 months of violence.

London Brent crude, currently seen as a better gauge of global oil markets, fell 31 cents to USD 68.76. US light, sweet crude fell 40 cents to USD 64.68 a barrel.

UNI