Sensex opens low at 19,364.61 pts, down by 360 pts

Mumbai, Nov 2: The BSE sensitive index today resumed low at 19,364.61 points losing 360 points from its last close of 19,724.35 points, on profit booking by local operators in view of bearish advice from global markets.

Market opened on a weak note tracking weak global markets. It came off lower level after initial sharp slide. Reliance Industries edged lower. GSM cellular operators Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular tumbled. Metal, banking, auto stocks declined sharply. Market breadth was weak, brokers said.

Later, the sensex was down by 163.95 points or 0.81 per cent (pc) to 19,565.20. It opened with a downward gap of 359.74 points and soon declined to hit a low of 19,255.77. At day's low of 19,255.77, Sensex lost 468.58 points.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE was also down by 38.1 points to 5,828.35 from its last close of 5866.45 points, before it resumed low at 5854.85 points. It recorded a low at 5714.25 points in intra day trade.

The BSE Mid Cap index declined 1.22 pc to 7,869.22 and BSE Small Cap index down 0.69 pc to 9,579.95.

India's largest private sector entity by market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) declined by 1.71 pc to Rs 2,630.

India's larget celluar services provider in terms of market share Bharti Airtel declined 5 pc to Rs 896.85 and Idea Cellular lost 3.01 pc to Rs 128.80 after the government, on yesterday, accepted Telecom Engineering Centre's report that suggested tough norms for spectrum allocation to GSM operators, a move that may make it difficult for players like Bharti, Vodafone and Idea to get additional frequency.

Metal stocks declined sharply in opening trade. Tata Steel was down by 0.58 pc to Rs 880 followed by Sterlite Industries by 2.76 pc to Rs 997.70, Steel Authority of India by 1.53 pc to Rs 254 and Hindalco Industries by 2.9 pc to Rs 182.45 edged lower.

India's largest public sector bank by operating income State Bank of India rose to Rs 2,089 after it revised interest rates on domestic term deposits.HDFC Bank was up by 0.04 pc to Rs 1,676.20 edged higher. ICICI Bank was down by 2.92 pc to Rs 1,261 edged lower.

The India's largest commercial vehicles manufacturer by sales Tata Motors lost by 0.35 pc to Rs 741.70 after posting 13 pc rise in sales at 49,354 units in October 2007 over October 2006. Its commercial vehicles sales rose by 16 pc at 27,103 units and domestic passenger car sales up 8 pc at 18,021 units in October 2007 over October 2006.

Cipla declined to Rs 173.90. It has received a notice from the government demanding Rs 49.47 crore, inclusive of interest, for alleged overcharging by the company during the period April 2006 to March 2007 in respect of the drug Salbutamol.

Larsen&Toubro was up to Rs 4,475 followed by Dr, Reddy's Laboratories by 0.95 pc to Rs 616.55, Hindustan Unilever by 0.54 pc to Rs 195.30, ITC by 0.49 pc to Rs 172.70 edged higher.

Maruti Suzuki India was down by 2.85 pc to Rs 975, HDFC by 2.66 pc to Rs 2,625.15 and Mahindra&Mahindra by 2.09 pc to Rs 749, edged lower.

Asian markets slumped today as hurt by an overnight sell-off on Wall Street. Hang Seng was down by 2.46 pc at 30,716.90 followed by Nikkei by 1.55 pc at 16,604.57, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted by 2.56 pc at 9,352.67, Singapore's Straits Times by 1.95 pc at 3,729.30 and South Korea's Seoul Composite by 1.41 pc at 2,034.01 all edged lower.

US markets tumbled yesterday, after brokerages downgraded Citibank and Bank of America, sparking fears of more credit crisis fallout.

The Dow Jones industrial average slumped by 362.14 points or 2.60 pc, to 13,567.87. The Standard&Poor's 500 index declined by 40.94 points, or 2.64 oc, at 1,508.44, while the Nasdaq Composite index dropped by 64.29 points, or 2.25 pc, to 2,794.83 which reflected to downward trend in Indian bources, brokers added.

UNI