Thursday, February 10, 2011

Sensex dips for the 3rd day; falls another 130 points

MUMBAI: The BSE benchmark sensex fell for the third straight day today, losing 130 points to 17,463.04, despite a dip in food inflation as investors remained unsure of strong corporate earnings in the face of high interest rates.

Besides, high oil prices and a widening probe in the spectrum scam kept the investor sentiment damp.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark sensex, which had lost nearly 445 points in last two trading session, rolled down further by 129.73 points, or 0.74%, to 17,463.04, a level last seen on July 7, last year.

The barometer touched the day's low of 17,362.59 before recovering a bit following an upsurge in the hard hit Anil Ambani group companies -- Reliance Infra, Reliance Com, Reliance Broadcast, Reliance Capital and Reliance Mediaworks.

The gauge has fallen 7.5% since the Reserve Bank of India raised key interest rates on January 25 for the seventh time since March and indicated more hikes in futures to curb overall inflation.

The food inflation, however, dipped to 7-week low of 13.07% for the week ended January 29, but failed to influence the trading sentiment as reports of the third quarter earnings by the Indian Oil failed to meet market expectations.

The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty lost 27.75 points, or 0.53% to 5,225.80. It touched the day's low of 5,196.80.

The tech sector index suffered the most by falling 1.54% to 3,596.07, followed by IT index -- 1.53% to 6,147.54. The realty sector fell 1.03% to 2,063.16 and oil and gas index by 0.81% to 9,138.95.

The oil major and most index heaviest Reliance Industries fell by Rs 12.10 to Rs 899.75 and second-heaviest software major Infosys by Rs 70.95 to Rs 3,056.05. The two carry nearly 23% weightage on the Sensex.

The banking index fell by 0.31% to 11,442.33 as the heavy-weight State Bank of India dropped Rs 94.25 to Rs 2,496.65, the most in a month.

No comments: