Sops Fail To Cheer Market, Sensex Down 39 Points

Trading was subdued on the Bombay Stock Exchange, which launched trading in the debt section yesterday, as well as on the National Stock Exchange. Indices fell and volumes stayed low.

The Sensex opened steady at 3508.71 and soon touched the intra-day high of 3511.42. Thereafter, some speculative sales pushed it to the day's low of 3454.45. It finally finished the day at 3468.29, which was 39.78 points lower than the Friday's close of 3508.07.

A total of 40 securities were listed in the debt segment. The total number of transactions in this segment was 185, the total number of securities traded was 37 lakh and the total turnover Rs 15 lakh.

 

A BSE broker said, "Today being the first day of debt trading on the BSE, the activity was lower. However, this is bound to go up in the next few days".

The total traded volume at the bourse was Rs 282.98 crore, with A group stocks accounting for Rs 234.15 crore. Stocks in B1 and B2 groups chipped in with Rs 32.76 crore and Rs 15.92 crore respectively.

The NSE-50 index opened at 1030 and touched a high of 1031, before reaching a low of 1012. It closed at 1014, losing 18 points over the previous close of 1032. The net traded value of stocks was Rs 684.89 crore and the net traded quantity 369.28 lakh shares.

A BSE broker said: "With Reliance Capital offering a return of 29.77 per cent after five years and advertisements of Tisco and Larsen & Toubro bond issues flashing everywhere, nobody has the finance to invest in the secondary market. The primary market is dead."

Friday's sops announced by the finance minister failed to lift market sentiments as he did not address the crucial issue of reviewing the MAT structure, said another broker.

Some brokers said the current fancy for debt and fixed deposits was part of a cycle.

"When equity is in demand, other instruments are ignored by the investor. Now it is the turn of these other fixed return instruments," commented a leading merchant banker.

Arvind Mills, Brooke Bond, Telco, Tata Power, Apollo Tyre, Crompton Greaves were among the stocks that lost ground.