Cutting short the two-day gains, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index, Sensex, on Friday plunged 271 points on weak global cues and disappointing fourth quarter result from State Bank of India.
The BSE 30-share index dropped 271.27 points, the most in Asia, to finish the day at 16994.60.
The index witnessed a sharp rise and fall and a late sell-off, triggered by weak European stocks, resulted in heavy losses in the domestic markets. Analysts said markets across the globe saw consolidation, indicating lack of cues for further direction. Even a fall in inflation, which came down to 9.59 per cent in April from 9.90 per cent a month ago, failed to enthuse investor sentiment. The National Stock Exchange's wide-based 50-share Nifty index lost 1.65 per cent to 5093.50.
Reliance Industries, which holds the maximum weight among bluechip stocks of the benchmark index, shed 2.64 per cent to settle at Rs. 1,043.55.
Losses were widespread on Friday. Except pharma and FMCG, all the sectoral indices ended in the red. Banking, metals, auto and real estate were some of the sectors which were marked down
Tata Steel, Sterlite and Hindalco were the major losers. Select stocks from the telecom sector had buying interest on reckoning that liability due to the recent recommendation made by TRAI may not be as much as first thought. Bharti Airtel emerged as the biggest gainer among the BSE-30. On global front, all the major Asian indices ended in the red and Europe was also trading in the negative zone in mid-session.
Rupee sheds 13 paise
The rupee cut short its two-session gains and ended lower by 13 paise against the dollar at 45.21/22 on Friday on good dollar demand by banks and corporates in view of firm dollar overseas.
The rupee hovered in a range of 45.26 and 45.03 before concluding at 45.21/22 a dollar. It closed at 45.09 on Thursday.
