Bearish trend continues

MUMBAI, July 24: The selling pressure continued on the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE today pushing the Sensex further down by 56 points. With today8217;s fall the Sensex has dropped by nearly 300 points in five sessions during the week. The closing rates showed further widespread losses. The volume of business remained below normal.

The BSE sensitive index opened lower at 3200.66 and after touching a high of 3231.50 fell to the day8217;s low of 3157.30 and closed at 3171.30, showing a net loss of 56.22 points. The BSE-100 index lost 22.30 points to 1396.85 from the previous level of 1396.85. Brokers said that pivotals lost further ground following heavy speculative selling by bull operators and foreign institutional funds as the impact of the fall in Japan and other Asian markets continued to dampen sentiments. Domestic institutions made purchases in select scrips but they could not stop the downtrend.

The dismal performance in the first quarter by Tisco had unnerved operators and continued flow of disappointingcorporate news further discouraged them. Satyam Computer continued to be the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs 202.48 crore of the total volume of business of Rs 990.24 crore. On the NSE, share prices declined on increased selling by FIIs. The NSE-50 index resumed weak at 933.50 and declined further to close at 920.10, showing a fall of 14.30 over the last close of 934.40. The Midcap index commenced lower at 1414.75 and finished at 1404.60, showing a loss of 10.20 from the last close of 1414.80. The total turnover stood at Rs 1,295.32 crore.