Sensex down to 2-week low

Reliance dips 2.7 per cent while IT firm Infosys touches an all-time high.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex on Thursday fell to its lowest in two weeks on the back of a sharp decline in the share price of Reliance Industries. Also, the sentiment was negative as equity indices in Europe were flat and US index futures edged lower.

The Sensex fell 1.03 per cent, or 182.7 points, to close at 17,639. The Sensex touched a high of 17,975 during the day. The broader index S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was down 0.9 per cent, or 50 points, at 5,273.

According to provisional figures, foreign institutional investors were net buyers to the tune of Rs 99.7 crore while domestic institutional investors were net sellers worth Rs 76.8 crore in the cash segment.

“The markets have closed in the negative zone for the past couple of days as some large funds have been creating headroom to buy again after the sharp run-up recently. The markets may not witness any major fall in the near term,” said Deven Choksey, managing director of K R Choksey Shares and Securities.

“The current fall in markets is a buying opportunity as large fund houses, both domestic and foreign, are still looking to pump in money. A near 8-10 per cent upside is likely from the current levels,” said Kashmira Mehta, head of institutional equities at C D Equi Search.

Driven primarily by higher food prices, the country’s annual rate of inflation went up marginally to 9.9 per cent in March from 9.89 per cent a month ago. The annual inflation rate was 1.2 per cent in March 2009.

The BSE Realty index rose 1.6 per cent, followed by BSE Consumer Durables and BSE Health Care index (both were up nearly 0.7 per cent). The BSE Mid-cap index shed 0.21 per cent and the Small-cap index was down 0.58 per cent. The BSE Oil&Gas index fell over 1.8 per cent.

Overall market breadth showed that nearly 57 per cent, or 1,708 stocks, declined, and 40.7 per cent, or 1,222 stocks, rose.

Energy giant Reliance Industries declined 2.7 per cent to Rs 1,090.25.

IT firm Infosys Technologies hit its all-time high of Rs 2,823.80 before closing up 0.7 per cent on strong sales forecast. Rivals Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro rose 0.1 per cent each, lifting the sector index to its highest in three years.

Banking sector played negative as State Bank of India and ICICI Bank dropped 1.8 per cent and 2.6 per cent, respectively.

While key equity indices in France and UK rose 0.05 per cent and 0.14 per cent, respectively, Germany’s Dax was down 0.02 per cent. The Dow Jones index futures were down 18 points before the markets open to trade.

Asian stocks rose as China’s economic growth accelerated after bellwether US tech and financial companies reported strong results, boosting appetite for riskier assets. The key benchmark indices in South Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan and Taiwan were up by between 0.16 and 0.92 per cent. China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.04 per cent and Singapore’s Straits Times fell 0.09 per cent.