The Hindu Business Line : Selling pressure pushes market further down

STOCK prices fell for the third day in a row as operators continued to unwind their position in the market and investors resorted to selling to subscribe to new issues.

The benchmark index Sensex lost 109 points today, erasing 285 points in the last three trading sessions.

Brokers said the selling was seen across the board and from all kinds of investors as they were selling their holding in the market in order to subscribe to the public offers.

There are two more days for ONGC issue to close, which is already oversubscribed over 6 times and the issue of Biocon, which opened today, is already oversubscribed around 6 times.

In addition, funds of high-net worth investors is blocked in the public offers is also leading to lower activity by them in the secondary market.

"The current fall in the market is more due to the short-term liquidity factor in the market and until it is sorted out the market is likely to remain weak," said a dealer with a domestic broking firm.

In today's trading, the market opened weak and as the day progressed further selling in the market brought down stock prices. The BSE Sensex closed at 5649.86, down 109.43 points (1.9 per cent). On NSE, S&P CNX Nifty closed down by 38.95 points (2.11 per cent) at 1805.40.

With today's fall, Sensex has lost 285 points in the last three trading sessions. This is after the benchmark index rose 368 points in the six trading sessions between February 26 and March 8 following the successful closure of the public offer of various PSUs.

In today's trading, selling was seen almost across the board. Cement, steel and automobile pivotals lost further ground on selling pressure after recent gains. PSU and other heavyweight stocks also traded lower on profit booking.

However, FMCG stocks were an exception in today's trading as most of them closed higher after witnessing selling in the previous trading sessions.

Brokers said value buying in FMCG stock was seen and this pushed the stock price.

Among the major gainers included HLL. Among the sector indices, BSE FMCG index closed higher while all other indices closed lower from their previous close.

After today's trading, the mood in the market appeared wary of making commitments ahead of the advance tax deadline of March 15.

Besides, with no short-term triggers till the March quarter financial results, the market is expected to remain range-bound amid low volumes in the short-term, brokers said.

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