Sensex dips 244 pts on rate concerns

Brokers said the October derivatives series commenced on a weak note,with Sensex washing out yesterday’s gains,as investors sold metals,realty,banking and auto stocks.

They said interest rate concerns gathered momentum as food inflation rose to 9.13 per cent for week ended September 17,from 8.84 per cent in previous week – a development which Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had termed as “grave”.

The overall inflation had climbed to 13-month high of 9.78 per cent in August.

Trading sentiment also dipped on weak trend in the Asian markets and lower openings in Europe,on continuing worries over euro zone debt and slowing US growth.

Besides,shares of Reliance ADAG group firms plunged after CBI said yesterday it is investigating whether Rcom Chairman Anil Ambani had a role to play in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

It hit marker mood,with Reliance Capital tumbled by 12.24 per cent,RCom by 7.60 per cent and Reliance Infra by 7.43 per cent – top three losers from ‘A’ group.

The BSE 30-share Sensex opened lower but recovered in the afternoon session,touching a high of 16,745.16.

However,sluggish European openings pulled it down to conclude at 16,453.76 — a fall of 244.31 points or 1.46 per cent. Yesterday,it had gained by 252.05 points or 1.53 per cent.

The 50-issue NSE index Nifty today fell back 72.20 points or 1.44 per cent to close at 4,943.25.

Coal India was the top Sensex loser,with a fall of 5.15 per cent,on approval of a new mining bill by the Cabinet that provides for sharing of profits and royalty with the people affected by the projects.

Globally,most of the Asian stocks ended narrowly mixed with downward bias. Key indices in China,Hong Kong and Singapore closed in the red,while Taiwan ended in the green.

Japan and South Korea markets were stable.

European stocks were remarkably down in the afternoon. The DAX,the CAC and the FTSE were down between 2.9 per cent and 1.7 per cent.

Meanwhile,back home,FIIs again truned net sellers after two days of buying and offloaded shares worth Rs 230.30 crore yesterday as per provisional with stock exchanges.

Overall,28 of the 30 Sensex scrips ended with losses,while only Bharti Airtel and RIL closed with gains.

Other major losers were Sterlite Ind (4.05 pc),Tata Steel (3.99 pc),Jindal Steel (3.78 pc),Hero MotoCo (3.01 pc),Tata Motors (3.01 pc),Tata Power (2.54 pc),DLF (2.21 pc),Jaiprakash (2.15 pc),TCS (2.15 pc),Cipla (2.13 pc),Maruti Suzuki (2.13 pc),ITC (2.10 pc),HDFC (2.08 pc),SBI (2 pc),ICICI Bank (1.61 pc),ONGC (1.32 pc).

Among sectoral indices,BSE-Metal slumped by 2.68 per cent,Realty (2.08 pc),Bankex (1.84 pc) and Auto (1.76 pc).

The total market breadth on the BSE remained negative with 1,716 counters losing ground,as against 1,019 ending with gains. Total turnover was relatively high at Rs 2,489.43 crore from Rs 2,272.12 crore yesterday.

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