Sensex slips by 333.30 pts, Nifty down by 113.20 pts

Mumbai, Jan 30: The Sensex today nosedived by 333.30 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange to close at 17,758.64 and the Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange shed 113.20 points, tracking weak European and Asian markets ahead of reported possible additional rate cut by US Federal Reserve.

A day after the RBI's third quaterly review, Sensex, after resuming the day in positive zone at 18,120.22, turned into a red zone in early trade. It touched an intraday low at 17,683.51, slipped 408 points from its previous close of 18,091.94 on prevailing profit booking interest in late trade before ending the session in negative zone amid a choppy session. Similarly, Nifty index of National Stock Exchange opened the day almost flat at 5,283.75 and shed about 172 points to touch a day's low at 5,142.25 from day's high of 5,314.30, before finally ended the day shedding 113.20 points at 5,167.60 from its previous close of 5,280.80.

The market posted losses for third straight day in choppy trade, tracking weak European and Asian markets as it was being reported that the US Fed could opt for further rate cuts within next fifteen days, brokers said.

Frontline stocks, Reliance Industries, Hindustan Unilever, DLF and Oil&Natural Gas Corporation led the fall. The market breadth was weak. Except a few, all the 30-members from the Sensex pack ended the day with a negative gap. All the Sectoral indices were in red on BSE. The turnover at BSE was low at Rs 4,046 crore, though it was higher than the previous turnover.

BSE Mid cap tumbled by 2.40 per cent to close at 7,829.06, while small-cap closed 2.22 per cent down at 10,146.86.

Turnover on NSE futures&options rose to Rs 57,973.91 crore as compared to Rs 56,019.95 crore in the previous session. On BSE, Oil&Gas index declined by 4.45pc, followed by Power index down by 2.88 pc, Consumer Durables index by 2.73pc, Realty index declined 2.43 pc, while Bankex and Capital Goods index ended the day 1.98 pc down.

Reliance Energy plunged 5.48 pc to Rs 1991.50 on 8.80 lakh shares. It was the top loser from the Sensex pack.

Shares from auto pack were under strong selling pressure. Bajaj Auto slipped 3.26 pc to Rs 2301, off day's low of Rs 2211. Bajaj Auto today posted a fall of 5.32pc in its net profit to Rs 326.81 crore for Q3 ended December 31'2007 over the corresponding quarter, a year ago. Among other Auto stocks, Tata Motors declined 3.30 pc, Mahindra&Mahindra declined 1.52 pc and Maruti Suzuki India was down 1.86 pc.

Hindustan Unilever tumbled down by 5.19pc, Reliance Communications declined 4.80 pc, Oil&Natural Gas Corporation was down 5.10 pc and Reliance Industries (RIL) declined 4.19 pc to join the other losers from the Sensex pack.

UNI