The free fall of bellweather Sensex is continuing. The sharp fall in PSU stocks and heavyweights like HLL and Reliance pulled down Sensex by another 57 points on Friday, thus taking the total loss in the last five sessions to 146.5 points. A host of PSU shares declined on Friday as the all-party meeting failed to resolve the current political stalemate and Parliament was adjourned for the fifth day in a row. Featuring among the biggest losers were BPCL (down 5.2% to Rs 280.50), Neyveli Lignite (down 4.7% to Rs 19.95), Bharat Earth Movers (down 4.7% to Rs 48) and HPCL (down 3.7% to Rs 262.70). Hindustan Lever which fell by 8.90 per cent to Rs 203.10 this week also dragged down the market. Sensex opened around the overnight level of 3,420.04 but later moved downwards in the wake of fresh onslaught induced by negative developments on the political front, and ended at the two-month low of 3,364.40 as against Thursday’s close of 3,420.94, netting a fall of 56.54 points or 1.65 per cent. The broad-based BSE-100 index dropped sharply by 42.95 to 1,685.64 from previous close of 1,728.59. The BSE PSU index on Friday lost 25.22 points or 1.62% to settle at 1,532.35. The PSU index has lost 107.42 points or 6.55% in the last 9 trading sessions to the current 1,532.35 from a high of 1,639.77 on April 8, 2002. The current fall in the PSU index comes after the index soared as investors made a beeline to mop up PSU shares following the government’s aggressive stand on divestment. Other PSU stocks which declined on Friday included SCI (down 3.6% to Rs 65.50), BEL (down 3.14% to Rs 157.70), Bhel (down 2.5% to Rs 170.50), Engineers India (down 2.44% to Rs 290.15), Sail (down 1.9% to Rs 4.95), IPCL (down 1.67% to Rs 94), Gas Authority of India (down 1.3% to Rs 78.90), HMT (down 1.2% to Rs 7.80) and telecom major MTNL (down 1.1% to Rs 136).
