Sensex touches below 9,000 barrier, down by 417 pts

Mumbai, Nov 17 (UNI) The Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) slipped below 9,000 level to 8,968.09 points, with a big loss of 417.24 points, from its last finish of 9,385.42 points on sustained heavy selling pressure by Foreign Institutional Investors and others.

Selling continued in realty, banking, capital goods, metal, technology and power stocks. Mid Cap and Small Cap stocks were also following the same trend.

The Nifty Index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) also fell by 77 points to 2,732 points. BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap indices lost between 2 and 2.5 per cent.

Among the frontliners, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HDFC, DLF, Sterlite Industries, Reliance Infrastructure, Jaiprakash Associates, Unitech, Zee Entertainment, Satyam, Suzlon Energy, Hindalco, L&T and BHEL lost from four to nine per cent. However, Tata Motors, BPCL and Cipla were the gainers.

BSE Bankex and Realty indices fell over five per cent each.

Metal, Capital Goods and IT indices tumbled by around three pc each.

TECK and Power indices went down by 2.5 pc.

Brokers said there could be some acceleration in outflows from hedge funds. India funds saw USD 24 million of inflows and that recently, outflows from some EMs have tamed.

There has been slowdown in the pace of outflows from long-only funds and that selling momentum in some EM funds has slowed down, they added.

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