Sensex approaches 3000

MUMBAI, January 28: Pivotals suffered further setback on the BSE today following fresh selling pressure by FIIs and lack of local support. The sensex dropped below the 52-week low of level 3247 and touched at 3209. The closing rates showed further modest to sizeable losses. The volume of business remained moderate. The closing undertone appeared weak.

The BSE sensitive index after touching an intra-day high of 3301.90, dropped sharply to close at 3209.55 with a net loss of 66.66 points compared to the previous level of 3276.21. The BSE-100 index also dipped by 27.37 points to 1401.65 from previous close of 1429.02. Brokers said that major FIIs led led by Morgan Stanley and Jardine Fleming, started off-loading heavily in almost all the index based counters. The selling pressure was so widespread that domestic FIs made only a feeble attempt at the last moment by picking small lots of shares of Tisco, SBI and Telco.

Today’s fresh fall in Sensex has resulted in breaking the two support levels and the stocksare likely to crash touching the 3000-mark in the next few days. On the NSE the downtrend continued as pivotals suffered a further setback on heavy disinvestment by foreign funds and poor support from local institutions. The NSE-50 opened at 962.65 and slumped to a low of 940.10 before closing at 944.80, showing a fall of 18.50 points from the previous close of 963.30. The Midcap index closed at 1092.20, showing a minor loss of 1.00 over the previous close. The exchange witnessed a total turnover of Rs 1,588.06 crore.