Swadeshi note hurts Sensex

The `swadeshi’ statements made by Samata Party leader and BJP ally George Fernandes unnerved market players who rushed to offload their positions in MNC stocks. FIIs, too, liquidated their positions.

“Fund managers who had more or less discounted the BJP’s earlier manifestos which were against the interests of the FIIs, rushed to liquidate a part of their positions,” said a dealer at a leading FII brokerage outfit. “The speculation over the finance minister is also dampening the sentiment,” he explained.

Heavyweights like Burroughs Wellcome, Lakme, SmithKline Pharmaceuticalsand Wartsila saw heavy liquidation. According to sources, local institutions like UTI also sold a huge chunk of these scrips. FIIs like Schroders, Credit Lyonnais and Jardine Fleming were rumoured to have offloaded huge chunks of MNC stocks.

Anticipating negative news on the HLL insider trading case by Sebi, the scrip touched a low of Rs 1,575 before closing at Rs 1,592.50, with a huge volume of 2.79 lakh shares. Hectic trading was reported in the shares of ITC with the scrip touching a new high of Rs 735.50 before closing at Rs 735.25 with 53.90 lakh shares changing hands.

Reliance touched a low of Rs 168.70 and a high of Rs 179 before closing at Rs 173.30 with 118.29 lakh shares changing hands. Tata Tea saw a volume of 32.68 lakh shares value at Rs 137.15 crore, Raasi Cement 0.22 lakh shares (Rs 0.49 crore) and SBI 35.98 lakh shares (Rs 98.87 crore).

A section of the brokers continued to contradict the market behaviour, saying that the losses incurred by the MNC stocks have in no way benefitedswadeshi stocks like Bajaj Auto, Mahindra & Mahindra and the Tata group.