Banking, software pull down Sensex

Stocks closed in the red for the third consecutive week, largely triggered by US’s worst unemployment numbers in 26 years and dismal housing data. There were also apprehensions that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may leave the indicative rates unchanged or tinker just a little with them in the upcoming third quarter review.

The downward rally was led by mainly by IT and banking majors. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Infosys and TCS fell by over 2 per cent.

The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index or Sensex fell by 139.49 points to close at 8,674.35 points. The Nifty closed at 2678.55, down 35.25 points.

Yesterday, US indices fell quite sharply on bad unemployment data and reports that Microsoft plans to cut 5,000 jobs. The Dow Jones and S & P 500 were down by 1.28 per cent and 1.52 per cent, respectively.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 2,503 stocks traded, 796 advanced and 1,609 declined.

Deven Choksey, managing director, K R Choksey said that though the initial corporate results were satisfactory, investors are still cautious about committing themselves.

While oil & gas, healthcare and consumer durables indices were up less than one per cent, others fell. Bankex fell 4.16 per cent, metal index fell 3.35 per cent, capital goods (-2.87 per cent), realty (-2.45 per cent) and IT (-2.2 per cent).