Sensex opens low by 48 pts

Mumbai, Oct 4: The Bombay Stock Exchange's (BSE) sensitive index today opened low at 17,799.63 with a modest loss by 48 points from its last close on profit booking by local operators in view bearish advice from global markets, brokers said.

The market opened on a negative note, following weak Asian and US markets. Though it recovered for a brief period, it once again sunk into red, only to bounce back. Reliance Industries extended gains.

Banking stocks declined. The market breadth was weak.

Later, the BSE 30-share Sensex was down 56 points, or 0.32 per cent (PC), to 17,793.17 points in early trade, but off its low of 17,710.39. The broadmarket index had opened with an upward gap of 138.79 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty of National Stock Exchange (NSE) resumed flat at 5211.65 points. Later it was up at 5,233.10. It had hit a low of 5,172.40 in early trade.

The BSE Mid-Cap index had fallen 46.37 points to 7,495.63, and the BSE Small-Cap index had declined 54.61 points to 9,058.92. Thus, both the indices had underpeformed the market.

Banking stocks declined, ICICI Bank was down 2.48 pc to Rs 1,061 and was the top loser among the Sensex pack. HDFC Bank (down 1.49 pc to Rs 1,410.20),State Bank of India (down 0.49 pc to Rs 1,900) had edged lower.

HDFC (down 2.09 pc to Rs 2,540),Tata Motors (down 1.4 pc to Rs 778.30) and Infosys (down 1.4 pc to Rs 1,973.45 ) were the other losers among the Sensex pack.

Reliance Energy had risen 4.26 pc to Rs 1,512.20 and was the top gainer among the Sensex pack. It hit an all-time high of Rs 1,530.

Bharti Airtel (up 1.78 pc to Rs 986.10), Reliance Industries (up 1.03 pc to Rs 2,418.20), Ranbaxy Laboratories (up 0.83 pc to Rs 442.25) and Bajaj Auto (up 0.75 pc to Rs 2,560) were the other gainers among the Sensex pack, brokers added.

Most of the Asian markets, which opened before the Indian markets, were in red today. These included Hong Kong"s Hang Seng (down 0.95 pc to 27,225.72.), Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted (down 0.66 pc to 9,635.57) and Japan's Nikkei (down 0.78 pc at 17,066.24).

However, Singapore's Straits Times (up 0.33 pc to 3,767.09) had edged higher.

American markets ended in red on October 3, 2007. The Dow Jones Industrial Average index declined 79.26 to 13,968.05 points and Nasdaq 17.68 points to 2,729.43 after selloff in tech stocks and fears of weak job data.

UNI