Sensex extends losses for third day

Persistent selling in metal and auto shares amid capital outflows and weak European trends dampened investor sentiment.

During the day,the Sensex logged a high of 6,671.81 asRBI announced a string of measures to limit the weakness of rupee,the worst-performing Asian currency.

However,it failed to hold to the gains and declined to a low of 16,377.02 when European markets opened weak. It finally closed at 16,420.05,a loss of 59.53 points or 0.36 per cent.

8220;Markets inched up on bargain buying. Banks and capital goods stocks led the rally in the morning session. Stocks continued to inch up wards as the session progressed during the afternoon. However,volatility came to the fore in the late afternoon session,8221; said Shanu Goel,Senior Research Analyst,Bonanza Portfolio.

Index heavyweight RIL,which has lost nearly 6 per cent in the last five days,had logged gains intra-day but closed flat at Rs 694.65.

Auto stocks bore the brunt of investors after data showed passenger car sales in India witnessed slowest growth during April in 10 years. Maruti,Hero MotoCorp,Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto fell in the 1-3 per cent range.

Metals stocks such as Jindal Steel,Sterlite Industries and Hindalco fell between 1.3-2.7 per cent on reports of soft base metal prices in overseas markets.

The NSE 50-share Nifty also moved down further by 9.10 points or 0.18 per cent to end at 4,965.70.

IT stocks ended on a mixed note with Infosys settling with nearly 1 per cent loss while TCS gained over 0.6 per cent after RBI said all foreign-exchange earners have to convert 50 per cent of the total foreign exchange earnings kept in banks into rupees.

Globally,European stock markets reversed initial gains today on disappointing Chinese trade data. Key benchmark indices in Germany,UK and France declined by 0.13 per cent to 1.29 per cent.

Most Asian markets fell for the sixth straight session as key benchmark indices in Hong Kong,Japan,Singapore,South Korea,Japan and Indonesia were down by 0.27 per cent to 0.51 per cent while indices in Taiwan and China rose 0.11 per cent and 0.07 per cent respectively.

Indication of lower opening in US index futures also affected the market sentiment,they said.

Turning to the domestic market,out of the 30-share Sensex pack,20 scrips finished with losses and nine ended with gains while Hindustan Unilever ruled steady.

Besides Maruti,other major losers in Sensex were Jindal Steel 2.68 pc,SBI 2.32 pc,Hero Motocorp 1.53 pc,Coal India 1.50 pc,Sterlite Industries 1.50 pc,Hindalco 1.34 pc,NTPC 1.22 pc,Sun Pharma 1.19 pc,Tata Motors 1.13 pc and ICICI Bank 1.10 pc.

Among Sensex winners,DLF firmed up by 2.25 per cent followed by BHEL 1.46 pc,ONGC 1.27 pc and Mamp;M 0.93 pc.

In sectoral indices,the BSE-Metal fell by 1.02 per cent followed by the BSE-Auto 0.89 pc and the BSE-Power 0.75 pc. The BSE-Oilamp;Gas moved up by 0.62 per cent.

The market breadth continued to remain negative as 1,524 scrips finished with losses while 1,239 scrips ended with gains. The total turnover declined to Rs 1,941.62 crs from Rs 2,069.31 crore yesterday.

FIIs sold shares worth a net Rs 376.34 crs yesterday as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. Their outflow totalled Rs 1,406.13 crore in three trading sessions from May 7 to May 9 data shows.