Sensex slumps by 206 pts at 12,895 mark

Mumbai, Sep 29: The 30-scrip Sensex of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Monday, Sep 29 slid below 13,000 barrier, down by 206 points, at 12,895.57 from its previous close on sustained heavy offloading by Foregin Institutional Investors on reports of bearish advices from Asian markets. The BSE 30-share Sensex was down by 179.82 points, or 1.37 per cent, to 12,915.81. The index recorded the low and high of 12,904.80 and 13,113.53 points respectively.

The S &P CNX Nifty index opened high at 3,990.20 points from its last close of 3,985.25, but it drifted lower by 66.15 points to 3,931.40 points. The BSE Mid-Cap index was down 1.4 pc at 4,871.82 and the BSE Small-Cap index was down 1.19 pc at 5,792.14.

Brokers said ''The Sensex resumed slightly higher at 13,109.96 points, against the previous day's close of 13,102.18, on scattered bullish support by local operators. But later, it sank as the Asian markets were trading in the red.'' The two significant events -- one, US lawmakers agreeing to a USD 700 billion rescue package for investment banks and two, the House of Representatives approving the nuclear deal with India over the weekend -- failed to boost the investor sentiments. Instability in the banking industry continued to weigh on the investors' sentiments in Asia, as the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments rushed to rescue financial firm Fortis over the weekend. In addition, reports suggest that the British government will take over mortgage lender Bradford&Bingley.

Most Asian markets were trading lower today as Hong Kong's Hang Seng, Japan's Nikkei, Singapore's Straits Times, South Korea's Seoul Composite fell between 0.47 per cent to 2.12 pc.

Rate sensitive realty stocks declined. Indiabulls Real Estate (down by 4.79 pc to Rs 176.35), Unitech (down by 3.6 pc to Rs 107.05) and DLF (down by 3.9 pc to Rs 354.90) edged lower.

IT stocks fell too. Satyam Computer Services slipped 2.47 pc to Rs 313.80, Tata Consultancy Services eased by 2.42 pc to Rs 660, Infosys declined by 3.02 pc to Rs 1,404 and Wipro dropped by 0.81 pc to Rs 340.95). HCL Technologies fell by 7.42 pc to Rs 197.15.

Among others, Tata Motors fell by 3.59 pc to Rs 360, Sterlite Industries came down by 3.03 pc to Rs 433.65, State Bank of India dropped by 3.08 pc to Rs 1,391 and ICICI Bank dropped by 2.85 pc to Rs 545.25.

However, Grasim Industries was up by 0.54 pc to Rs 1,770, ITC moved up 0.49 pc to Rs 193.20, Bharat Heavy Electricals rose 0.47 pc to Rs 1,557.90, ONGC gained 0.18 pc to Rs 1,037.

UNI