JOIN USSensex tanks 292 points
In fact, the output of India’s infrastructure sector grew 2.8 per cent in May from 3.1 per cent in the same month last year, and apparently this growth is slower than 5 per cent in April. The market opened up over the previous session’s closing tracking positive cues from the global markets especially Asian markets were in green in early trading .
However, Dalal Street lost ground soon after start and exhibited volatility as investors were becoming cautious ahead of Union Budget next week. So much so, Sensex ended below 14,500 level, while Nifty dipped below 4,300 level.
From the sectoral front, investors off-loaded position across sectors with most of the selling witnessed in realty, metal, power, capital goods, bank and oil & gas, besides pharma and auto stocks. Broader indice stocks also followed the same trend. In fact, a bunching of institutional placement of shares by corporate India forced GMR Infrastructure to withdraw its issue.
Indices watch
The popular Sensex at Bombay Stock Exchange lost 291.90 points or 1.97 per cent to close at 14,493.84 points. The Sensex swung between the day’s high of 14,907.48 points and the day’s low of 14,420.41 in late trade. The broader based S&P CNX Nifty at National Stock Exchange was down 99.85 points or 2.27 per cent to 4,291.10 points.
Nifty July 2009 futures were at 4302.25, at a premium of 11.15 points as compared to the spot closing, while turnover on NSE’s futures & options (F&O) segment surged to Rs 52,352.52 crore from Rs 47,588.96 crore on Monday.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On BSE, 1859 shares declined as compared with 764 scrips that gained, while a total of 71 shares remained unchanged.
The near term major trigger for the stock market is the Union Budget 2009-10 on July 6, 2009. Prior to that is the annual Economic Curvey on July 2 followed by the Rail Budget on July 3.
While the corporate sector is expecting a removal of the fringe benefit tax (FBT) in the budget, domestic brokerages and fund houses want the government to remove securities transaction tax (STT) on trading in securities in the Budget.