Sensex falls by 70 points

MUMBAI, MARCH 11: Pivotals suffered a setback on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today on emergence of bull unloading coupled with end-ac...

MUMBAI, MARCH 11: Pivotals suffered a setback on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today on emergence of bull unloading coupled with end-account considerations. The heavy margins imposed by the authorities in software scrips was a major reason for the downtrend which pulled down Sensex by 70 points.

The BSE sensitive index (Sensex) slumped from the day’s high of 3770.72 to below the psychological barrier of 3700 mark to finish the session’s low at 3673.51, with a sizeable loss 69.86 points as against the previous close of 3743.37. The BSE-100 index also declined sharply by 32.15 points to 1603.03 from the previous close of 1635.18.

Apart from the approaching settlement, the sentiment was affected by exchange authorities’ decision to impose heavy margins in the range of 22-60 per cent in software shares. This affected the morale of brokers as they have to pay the margins on behalf of their clients. Fed up by heavy margins, bulls unloaded heavily in prime counters, resulting in a fall in share prices. Ahead of tomorrow’s weekly settlement, speculators preferred to offload their long positions created since the presentation of the Union budget.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), equities failed to sustain initial gains and declined sharply at the fag end of the session on heavy bull liquidation by FIIs and profit-taking by speculators. The S&P CNX Nifty after opening higher at 1080.15, closed at the day’s low of 1059.60, with a net loss of 19.25 points from the previous close of 1078.85. The total turnover was Rs 2,510.19 crore. The exchange witnessed 392 scrips advance, 692 scrips decline and 91 remained unchanged. Also 118 securities had hit their price bands.