Sensex closes 79 points down, metal stocks fall

Mumbai, January 7: A day after plummeting to its biggest loss in recent times, a benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed Wednesday’s trade down 79 points or 0.29 percent. The benchmark index Wednesday fell for the third consecutive trade session. On Tuesday, the equities market barometer plunged 855 points – its biggest fall since Sep 3, 2013, when it declined by 651 points. Trade alysts cited that the Indian markets fell to its third consecutive trade session, due to negative global cues such as fears of continued downfall in crude oil prices and speculations over Greece’s exit from eurozone.

In Wednesday’s trade, heavy selling pressure was seen in metal, banking, information technology (IT), healthcare, technology, entertainment and media (TECK) sectors, while healthy buying was observed in oil and gas, consumer durables and capital goods stocks.

The 30–scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 26,983.43 points, closed at 26,908.82 points, down 78.64 points or 0.29 percent from the previous day’s close at 26,987.46 points. The Sensex touched a high of 27,051.60 points and a low of 26,776.12 points in the intra–day trade. “Tracking global cues, our markets opened with a down side gap and later remained sideways, heavy weight stocks like HUL (Hindustan Unilever), Reliance Industries and ONGC supported the market to a greater extent,” said Alex Mathews, head research, Geojit BNP Paribas Fincial Services. “Weak crude oil (prices), weak euro and concerns of FII (foreign institutiol investors) selling both in the cash and F&O (futures and options) markets are the key reasons for the decline.” On Tuesday, the FIIs were net sellers in the capital market segment, selling shares worth Rs.1,570.76 crore. Sector–wise in Wednesday trade, the S&P metal index dropped by 149.85 points, bankex plunged by 136.99 points, IT index was lower by 50.65 points, healthcare index dipped by 26.88 points and TECK index slipped by 20.69 points.

However, oil and gas index gained by 132.11 points, followed by consumer durables index which was up 25.25 points and capital goods index which closed the day’s trade up 20.69 points. The wider 50–scrip Nifty of the tiol Stock Exchange (NSE) closed the trade down 25.25 points or 0.31 percent at 8,102.10 points. The major Sensex gainers were: Hindustan Unilever, up 3.48 percent at Rs.802.10; Reliance Industries, up 2.31 percent at Rs.855.40; NTPC, up 2.19 percent at Rs.142.55; ONGC, up 1.70 percent at Rs.338.10; and Maruti Suzuki, up 1.25 percent at Rs.3,438. The losers were: Hindalco Inds, down 2.80 percent at Rs.149.10; ICICI Bank, down 2.63 percent at Rs.338.70; Gail, down 2.61 percent at Rs.421.05; BHEL, down 2.47 percent at Rs.254.55; and ITC, down 1.96 percent at Rs.353.55.  (IANS)