The Hindu Business Line : All-round selling pulls down Sensex

Owing to the intense selling pressure, the BSE Sensex plunged by 141.99 points to 5,922.11 points and the S&P CNX Nifty down by 42.1 points to 1,893.25 points. This is in contrast to the uptrend in the indices on Monday, wherein the Sensex zoomed up by 117.9 points and the Nifty put on about 34.7 points.

The indices were highly volatile. The Sensex touched a high of 6,130.09 points and an intra-day low of 5,899.71 points; the Nifty had risen to 1,957.65 points before plunging to 1,876.85 points.

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The weakness in the index heavyweights magnified the fall. Reliance lost 2.3 per cent to close at Rs 572.40; Infosys was down 2 per cent and closed at Rs 5,391.65 and HLL lower by 7.05 per cent to Rs 203.55. Stocks that stood out in the positive territory and reduced the loss burden of the indices were Bajaj Auto, ABB, Digital GlobalSoft, Indian Hotels, HDFC Bank, HPCL and Bharti Tele-Ventures.

The overall market, however, was weak, with about 1,480 stocks declining and 638 stocks advancing.

Bharti Tele-Ventures rose by 5.48 per cent to close at Rs 118.40, lower than the intra-day high of Rs 125.60. The company had earlier announced third quarter results. Though both the net profits and revenues were lower than the corresponding previous quarter's results, its inclusion into the Nifty from March also fuelled the stock. Maruti, which would also be included in the Nifty, however, did not share similar fate on Tuesday. The stock closed lower at Rs 405.55, down by 4.44 per cent on the NSE.

Stocks that bucked the prevailing trend to close with gains were UTI Bank, Mirc Electronics, Cummins India, IDBI Bank, Kotak Bank and Moser Baer.

Sundaram Clayton, Alok Industries and Madhucon projects hit the upper circuit filter.

Notable losers were Indo Rama Synthetics, Tata Chemicals, Tata Tea and Tata Power. Most of the decline was in the PSUs with the BSEPSU index declining by 127.84 points to 3,958.45 points. Major losers were IOC, ONGC, Shipping Corporation, SAIL, Gail India, SBI, Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank, Canara Bank and Bank of Baroda.

The turnover in the futures and options segment on the NSE was higher at more than Rs 16,000 crore.