A weak opening in European markets and profit-booking in bluechip stocks such as Reliance Industries brought the Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index, Sensex down by over 100 points on Tuesday.
The Sensex closed lower at 17223.01 against 17326.01 last Saturday.
The Sensex rose in early trade in tune with Asian bourses but the sentiment turned bearish after taking cues from sluggish European markets. Reliance counter kept the market under pressure.
ADVERTISEMENT
Refinery, consumer durables and capital goods counters attracted profit-booking, while realty and metal stocks evoked good buying interest.
Reliance Industries dipped by 1.84 per cent to Rs. 2,184. Brokers said sentiment was affected in the backdrop of the Supreme Court beginning hearing in the gas dispute case between RIL and Anil Ambani Group company RNRL. They also said that Cabinet’s decision on Monday to offload five percentage point stake in NTPC and 10 percentage point stake in another unlisted power Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam boosted sentiment in early trade.
The market opened for trading today after two days gap. The last trading was on Saturday, a special Muhurat trading for Samvat 2066. The broader 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange ended down by 27.35 points or 0.53 per cent at 5114.45.
ADVERTISEMENT
Besides Strait Times, other indices from Asia ended in the green on the back of strong closing on the Wall Street on Monday. From Europe, CAC was quoting lower by 0.4 per cent, FTSE by 0.29 per cent and DAX by 0.25 per cent this afternoon.
Rupee gains 18 paise
The rupee gained 18 paise against the dollar and closed at 46.12 on Tuesday against 46.30 last Friday.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee resumed higher at 46.04/05 and touched a high of 45.94 in late morning deals.
However, a sluggish trend in equity market weighed on the rupee. The rupee touched a low of 46.20 intra-day. Some dollar buying by importers, mainly oil refiners, to meet their requirements too kept a check on the rupee rise. Meanwhile, dollar continued to be weak against its rivals in the overseas market. Global crude oil prices were trading one-year high above $80 a barrel in Asian trade.