Sensex struggles below 16K in opening trade

Mumbai, Jun 3: The Sensex of Bombay Stock Exchange dipped further below 16K level to a low at 15,746, losing over 300 points, while Nifty was down by over 95 points at 4,650 on sustained selling pressure in the opening trade.

The Indian bourses were witnessing heavy selling pressure across the sectors. Power, realty, capital goods, technology, telecom, metal and banking stocks were deep into red. Midcap and small cap stocks fell sharply, resulting market breadth struggling in negative. Satyam, Reliance Infra, JP Associates, BHEL, Tata Power and Unitech were the top losers and were down about 3-4 per cent in the mid-morning trade. While, Grasim, Tata Motors, M&M, Ambuja Cements, Cairn India and ONGC were in demand.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) was up 0.86 pc to Rs 2,376 on 1.32 lakh shares. It was the top gainer from Sensex pack. The stock moved in a range of Rs 2,318.60 and Rs 2,378.45 so far during the day.

Oil&Natural Gas Corporation was marginally up to Rs 838, Tata Motors up 0.74 pc to Rs 567.10 and Grasim Industries was up 0.82 pc to Rs 2,229.50.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday reportedly said the government was left with no option but to hike the fuel prices in the wake of soaring global crude oil prices. However, the government's move to hike fuel price will face challenge from Left, and may propel inflation above 10 pc. If government does not hike prices, oil marketing companies will go bankrupt, spoiling its report card.

As per provisional data, foreign funds sold shares worth a net Rs 349.84 crore yesterday. They have been on a selling drive recently, offloading shares worth Rs 5,015 crore in past nine trading sessions. Domestic funds bought shares worth net Rs 9.81 crore on that day.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers of Rs 242.85 crore in the futures&options segment that day. They were net sellers of index futures to the tune of Rs 923.24 crore and bought index options worth Rs 759.95 crore. They were net buyers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 390.03 crore and bought stock options worth Rs 16.11 crore.

UNI