Sensex down by 197.54 points, closes at 15, 572.18

Mumbai, June 6: The Sensex was down by 197.54 points today to close at 15,572.18 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on worries over the soaring inflation rate that may trigger hike in cash reserve ratio (CRR) by the Reserve Bank.

The benchmark index, which started the day with a positive gap of 144.69 points from its previous close of 15,769.72 on extended buying interest following positive global cues in the opening trade, failed to sustain the gains for a longer period and slipped into red, lost 243.22 points to touch a day's low of 15,526.50 due to selling pressure after the government released the weekly data on inflation rate.

Meanwhile, the broader based Nifty index of National Stock Exchange opened positive at 4,680.55, moved up to a high of 4,746.30 and then slipped into negative zone to touch a day's low 4,624.25, lost 62 points, before ending 49.15 down at 4,627.80.

Amidst a volatile trading session today, the market failed to hold on to the higher level despite firm start on sustained selling pressure, triggered in the second half of the session. Volatility was high throughout the day on the expectation that the Reserve Bank of India may further hike CRR or interest rate to rein in inflation, dealers said.

Annual inflation based on the wholesale price index (WPI) rose 8.24pc for the week ended May 24, 2008, against previous week's 8.10 percent, the government data released today showed.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap index closd marginally low at 6,350.15 and 7,896.05, respectively. Except Auto index, all the sectoral index on BSE ended in negative zone. FMCG, Realty, Metal index fell sharply by 2.65 pc, 1.83 pc and 1.27 pc, respectively.

Overall, the market breadth was negative, out of 2,717 stocks traded, 1,524 declined, 1,125 advanced and 68 were unchanged.

Reliance Infrastructure declined 2.7pc at Rs 1,100. TCS and Bharti declined over two per cent each to Rs 960 and Rs 802, respectively. Ranbaxy slipped 3.5pc at Rs 507, Hindalco declined 3.45 pc at Rs 176, DLF was down 3.4pc to Rs 520, Wipro tumbled 4.4pc to Rs 505, ITC plunged 4.1pc to Rs 213, Jaiprakash Associated dropped 2.2pc at Rs 201 and Tata Steel dipped 2.1pc to Rs 823.

BHEL was down 1.6pc at Rs 1,421, ONGC shed 1.5pc to Rs 938, Larsen&Toubro and SBI dropped 1.4 pc each at Rs 2,682 and Rs 1,335, respectively.

However, Mahindra&Mahindra gained 3.5pc to Rs 582 and Tata Motors advanced 1.4pc to Rs 540. Grasim and Infosys closed slightly up at Rs 2,263 and Rs 1,993, respectively

UNI