Scrips Tumble On Hectic Selling Pressure

Equities reacted sharply on nervous bull liquidation and squaring up positions on the last day of the current settlement on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) yesterday.

Operators had created long positions in a number of blue chip counters expecting the political crisis to settle down. They were nervous about the prolonged delay and liquidated positions ahead of the current settlement. The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) had restricted their activity to ITC, Castrol and Tata Tea. The domestic funds unloaded heavily shares of Tisco, Reliance and IPCL. The institutions made small lot purchases in ITC, Castrol and Tata Tea.

The BSE sensitive index, which opened at 3,616.47, dropped to a low of 3,522.59 and recovered part of the losses at the close to end at 3,560.29, showing a loss of 67.78 from the previous close of 3,628.07. The BSE-100 slumped by 29.18 to close at 1,543.10 from the last close of 1,572.28. The BSE-200 closed lower at 346.91 and the Dollex at 149.75 from the last close of 353.70 and 153.07 respectively.

ITC bore the brunt of the selling pressure for liquidating long positions and ended with moderate losses. BHEL, BSES, Colgate, Glaxo, Gujarat Ambuja, HPCL, Hindalco, L&T, Mah&Mah, Reliance, SBI-new, Telco, Tisco and Tata Tea all lost substantial ground on squaring up positions.

ABB, Asian Paints, Castrol, Bur Well, Dr Reddy, German Remedies, Hero Honda, HDFC, MRF, Lakme, Pfizer, Ponds, Proctor, Reckitt Col, SKF Bearings, Siemens and Wartsila ended lower on selling pressure.

The total turnover on the BOLT system amounted to Rs 1,015.08 crores. ITC Ltd led the turnover table with Rs 407.86 crore, followed by SBI with Rs 108.32 crore, Reliance with Rs 100.13 crore, Tata Tea with Rs 88.51 crore and Castrol with Rs 88.37 crore.