Sensex Falls 37 Points On Fears Over Rao'S Arrest

After ruling steady in the last two sessions, equities reacted sharply, pushing the Sensetive Index down by 36.87 points. According to market sources, the news of the dismissal of the former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao's anticipatory bail plea by the Delhi High Court triggered off selling pressure by the operators, who feared political instability if Rao was arrested immediately on appearing before the trial court on Monday.

The BSE Sensetive Index started off lower during intra-day trading at 3341.09 and thereafter dropped below the 3300-mark, before settling down at 3307.05 against yesterday's close of 3343.92.

Trading was witnessed in 2.01 crore shares worth Rs 287.52 crore, out of which the 32 A group stocks contributed Rs 230.51 crore, while the B1 and B2 group stocks chipped in Rs 39.81 crore and Rs 17.13 crore of trading respectively.

 

Said a BSE broker: The market witnessed depressed activity throughout the session as there was no buying support from FIIs as well as domestic

institutions.

State Bank of India is at presentis in the forefront, retaining its position as the most active scrip for quite some time now due to its GDR issue, the price of which is expected to get about 5 per cent premium when it would be determined on October 3.

The pricing of this State Bank of India GDR issue of $US 400 million would direct the future trend in most of the bourses.

The SBI stock lost ground after opening at Rs 263.50. It touched an intra-day high of Rs 264.25 and an intra-day low of Rs 257.50 before closing at Rs 259.25, a loss of Rs 5 over the previous close of Rs 259.25. The stock witnessed trading in 40.28 lakh shares worth Rs 104.77 crore.

The Reliance stock lost Rs 3.25 over the previous close when it closed at Rs 193.75 and saw 12.08 lakh shares worth Rs 23.45 crore being traded.

Among other major losers were stocks like Telco (Rs 4.75 loss over the previous close), ACC (Rs 48), IPCL (Rs 7), Century Textiles (Rs 200), Hero Honda (Rs 11) and ITC Hotels (Rs 8.75)