Markets dip for fifth straight day, Sensex down 102 points

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex on Tuesday shed nearly 102 points, extending the losses to the fifth straight session with consumer durables and IT stocks taking a hit. Auto and metal counters too remained under a selling pressure amid weak trends in Asian bourses.

The 30-share barometer on BSE, which has lost 858 points in the last four sessions, lost another 101.93 points at 14,543.73. The key index dipped to the day’s low of 14,368.72 points. Investors covering their fresh short positions pulled up the Sensex, but only to reduce the losses.

Buying in heavyweight stocks in metal and technology counters saw index touching the day’s high of 14,604.11 points. The National Stock Exchange’s (NSE) Nifty also fell by 24.80 points at 4,368.25, after dipping to 4,316.55 and rising to 4,393.70 points during the day.

Marketmen said the market continued to be volatile even for the fifth straight session on concerns over inflation rising to a fresh high at 12.44 per cent. Investors were also unsettled by losses in Asian stock markets on the renewed US credit crisis.

Asian stocks on Tuesday fell to a two-year low on fears that the US government would have to bail out the top mortgage companies, destabilising the financial sector further.

Tech stocks suffered the most by losing 1.38 per cent, followed by consumer durables at 1.17 per cent.

The tech sector suffered following a fall in stocks of Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, I-flex, Reliance Communications and Balaji telefilms losing ground.

The PSU index also lost 49.57 points at 6,892.73, while the auto index was down by 33.33 points at 3,849.33. IT and metal indices were lower by 0.87 per cent and 0.74 per cent respectively.