Heavy Foreign Institutional Selling Pulls Down Sensex

Heavy selling pressure from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) saw the share prices falling sharply at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) yesterday. The government decision to hike the import duty by 3 per cent has completely shaken the FIIs confidence who resorted to heavy selling particularly in pivotals , a broker said.

Selective buying by domestic financial institution prevented the stock market from literally crashing, said a dealer. Market sources expects investment from FIIs to come to standstill temporary.

The BSE-30 Sensex opened yesterday at 4013.68 but fell sharply later on in the day to close at 3928.33 down by 84.26 points over its previous close. The government move to hike the import duty will definitely lead to slow down of FIIs investment in the country which had already fallen drastically, said a fund manger with leading FIIs.

Among the scrips that fell sharply at the bourse yesterday were BHEL down by Rs 16 to close at Rs 359, HDFC fell sharply by Rs 44 to close at Rs 3199, MTNL moved down by Rs 9 to close at Rs 3233, Reliance was down by Rs 8 to close at Rs 344.

Software scrips fell sharply yesterday Infosys Technology was down by Rs 42 to close at Rs 1382, Satyam Computer fell by Rs 8 to close at Rs 171.

Other scrips that witnessed the downtrend were Tata Tea, down by Rs 11 to close at Rs 443, ITC fell by Rs 5 to close at Rs 567.

Among the scrips that went up at the BSE was Madras Aluminium, up by Rs 6 to close at Rs 110, Hindalco went up by Rs 2 to close at Rs 974.

Esab India remained steady at Rs 116. The stock market may go down during the next few trading session if selling FIIs persist, said a broker.