Sensex slips 152 pts on concerns over rupee rise

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index, or Sensex, pared early gains today following heavy selling in IT shares on fears of earning downgrade as the rupee touched a fresh 12-month high of 46.83.

The Sensex today opened with a positive gap of 110 points at 17,069 on the back of strong global vibes. The index soon spurted to a high of 17,121 and thereafter exhibited a firm trend till noon trades. However, a subdued start to the European markets played its part in pulling the index into the negative terrain. Then on the index continued to exhibit volatility. The Sensex slipped to an intra-day low of 16,860 and finally ended at 16,806.66, down 151.88 points, or 0.90 per cent.

On the other hand, the US markets ended on a positive note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9,731, up 131 points, or 1.3 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index shut shop to 2,103, up 35 points, or 1.71 per cent.

Other Asian markets also ended on a positive note. The Hang Seng advanced 2 per cent and the Nikkei was up 1.11 per cent. The Seoul Composite and the Jakarta Composite were down nearly 0.5 per cent each.

The mid-cap and small-cap indices outperformed the Sensex by rising 1.41 per cent and 0.46 per cent, respectively.

The CNX Nifty touched a high of 5,077 during the day’s trade and then tumbled to a low of 4,973. The index finally settled with a loss of 41.65 points at 4,985.75.

Major gainers on BSE were Sterlite, up 5.53 per cent, and Jaiprakash Associates, which added 2.23 per cent. Hindalco, Bhel and Tata Steel gained around 1.5 per cent each.

Major losers among IT stocks were Wipro (4.28 per cent), TCS (3.31 per cent) and Infosys (2.55 per cent). Other prominent losers were Maruti Suzuki (3.86 per cent), SBI (2.66 per cent), Grasim Industries (2.43 per cent), Reliance Communications (2.31 per cent) and ICICI Bank (2.23 per cent).

Among sectoral indices, consumer durables surged 5.63 per cent, followed by metal (3.38 per cent), power (1.62 per cent), healthcare (1.59 per cent) and capital goods (1.58 per cent). The IT index, on the other hand, was the major loser, down 2.43 per cent, while the TECk index declined 1.91 per cent. The market breadth was marginally positive. Out of 2,843 shares traded, 1,420 advanced, 1,331 declined and 92 remained unchanged on BSE today.

“The market today looked tired and some amount of profit-booking emerged towards the end of the trading session,” said DD Sharma, VP Research - Retail, Anand Rathi Financial Services. Sharma expects the Sensex benefit from the surprise bonus issue by Reliance and open on a firm note tomorrow and the Nifty to consolidate in the range of 4,920-5,050 till some major news breaks out.