Sensex dips on unloading

Brokers said the sentiment was affected mainly due to heavy selling triggered by fresh political uncertainty coupled with reports of a fare hike in the railway budget. Foreign funds, however, picked up shares of Lamp;T, Tata Tea, Reliance, and others. Domestic institutions led by UTI made small purchases in ICICI, Lamp;T, HDFC and MTNL. ITC continued to be the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs 178.48 crore. The total volume of business stood at Rs 1256.33 crore. On the NSE, pivotals weakenedunder heavy selling pressure from foreign funds and domestic institutions. Being the first day of the current settlement, prices edged up in the early session but later declined on sustained bull liquidation. The NSE-50 opened at 1188.00, touched a high of 1196.70 and a low of 1169.15 and closed at 1172.45, showing a drop of 15.65 points over the previous close. The midcap opened at 1672.40, traded in the range of 1682.90 and 1634.75 and closed at 1640.15, with a loss of 31.70 points over the previous close. The total turnover was Rs 1,612.01 crore.