Sensex Falls Below 3000 Mark On Bear Hammering

A sustained bear hammering pushed the Sensex below the psychological barrier of 3000. Equities dropped further on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for the third consecutive day on the speculative selling pressure, despite some selective buying support coming in from foreign institutional investors (FIIs).

Reflecting the bearish trend, the 30-share BSE sensitive index opened at 3059.61, dropped below the psychological barrier of 3000 to touch a days low of 2999.79 and recovered slightly from the days low to close at 3044.16, still showing a net loss of 18.68 points against the previous close of 3062.84.

The sensex has incidentally lost more than 100 points during last three trading sessions.

 

The decline in the indices was mainly on the account of ITC chairman Yogi Deveshwars admission that Fera violations had been committed in the Indian Leaf Tobacco Division (ILTD) between 1991 and April 1996.

The price hammering on the bourse was rampant as the stock at one stage had slumped to the intra-day low of Rs 240.50. While the previous close for the scrip was Rs 269 on the BSE, it opened at Rs 267 and closed at Rs 244, thereby losing Rs 25 at the end of the day. BSE sources, however, could not confirm whether the scrip had touched the circuit braker limits.

The broadbased National Index drifted lower by 7.11 points to 1363.70 against the previous close of 1370.81. The BSE-200 and Dollex indices eased by 1.57 and 0.78 points to 302.35 and 140.88 against the previous close of 303.92 and 141.66 points respectively.

According to market sources, FIIs made small purchases at the L&T and HPCL counters. Heavy bull liquidation was witnessed in the tobacco giant ITC. BSE brokers said that the exchange had applied circuit breaker in the ITC at the price of Rs 240.50 and 255 respectively, to arrest a further fall of the scrip. Sources from Jamnadas Morarjee, a leading BSE brokerage commented that the stock markets are likely to be lacklustre for some more time until the political uncertainty blows over and liquidity returns to the system.

SBI clocked the highest turnover on the bourse (Rs 107.32 crore), followed by ITC (Rs 96.37 crore) and Reliance (Rs 94.69 crore).