The Hindu Business Line : Negative factors weigh down stock market

MUMBAI: A slew of negative factors weighed down the market sentiment during the week under review and after a hefty gain of over 855 points in the last week, the benchmark Sensex continued its southbound journey and was down by 214 points, despite smart recovery in last two days.

Unwinding long outstanding positions by operators ahead of the expiry of March contract on Thursday and sluggish global cues mainly took its toll on share values on the first two sessions, sending the Sensex down by 400 points.

Appreciating domestic currency and spiralling global crude oil prices further added fuel to the fire.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex fluctuated in a range of 13,345.73 and 12,832.69 before concluding the week at 13,072.10, a fall of 213.83 points or 1.61 per cent over the last weekend's close of 13,285.93, at the end of fiscal 06-07.

The wide-based S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also dropped by 39.50 points or 1.02 per cent to 3,821.55 from previous weekend's close of 3,861.05.

Despite several measures taken by the government, inflation remained high at 6.46 per cent and as a result bank stocks suffered huge losses on expectations of further rise in the interest rate.

IT stocks, mainly exporters which collects nearly 60 to 70 per cent of their revenue from the US market, also bore the brunt of selling due to rising rupee against dollar to a 7-year-high as strengthening rupee impacts their bottom line.

Auto counters were also under heavy selling pressure due to possibility of slow-down in sales and high crude oil prices over $66 a barrel. - PTI

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