Nifty turns bitter on inflationary woes, sheds 1.69 pc

Mumbai, Jan 14 (PTI) In yet another bout of sell-off inrate sensitive counters, inflationary hydra raised its headagain leading the benchmark S&P CNX Nifty to close below thepsychological 5,700-mark at the National Stock Exchange (NSE)here today.

The 50-share index witnessed wide swings between 5,833.65and 5,639.65 before concluding the session at 5,654.55, down97.35 points, or 1.69 per cent, over its previous close.

The bourses resumed lower as sell off momentum continuedon rate hike fears looming large. It accelerated in afternoontrade as news of steep 8.43 per cent rise in inflation forDecember came out.

Surprisingly, the process got reversed as the key indexregained 5,800-mark on low level buying from tech counters.

The recovery was short-lived as the entire gains were erasedand the negative momentum took the market into deep red.

"There is tremendous volatility in the market in view ofcurrent macro economic problems with panicky investors takingadvantage of intermediate short-covering bounces to grabprofits," traders said.

Sail, Axis Bank, Sterlite Industries, HDFC Bank, TataMotors, Ambuja Cements, ACC, Sesa Goa and IDFC were the toplosers from the Nifty.

However, Wipro, Tata Power, HCL Tech and Ranbaxy managedgains.

Total turnover in the cash segment dropped to Rs 12,744crore from Rs 14,154.22 crore yesterday. A total of 7,206.01lakh shares changed hands in 60,04,001 trades and marketcapitalisation stood at Rs 66,47,223 crore at the end of day.