RIL result helps markets recover from sharp fall

The 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange barometer opened 353 points down, tracking global cues and unimpressed by the poor corporates results amid mounting inflation worries.

The Sensex dropped below 17,000-mark to a low of 16,608.09 intra-day, but low level buying by domestic funds pulled it up to settle at 16,859.68, still with a fall of 191.46 points or 1.12 per cent over its previous close.

Marketmen said today's fall was mainly due to heavy selling by FII who were worried that their fund-flow would be chocked if the US president had his way with controlling the Wall Street banks most of which were bailed out by his government last year.

Similarly, the broader 50-issue Nifty of the National Stock Exchange shaved off 58.15 points or 1.14 per cent to close at 5,036. The Nifty had a huge 110 points gap-down opening.

SMC Global Vice President Rajesh Jain said, "a correction was long over due, as the market has been moving upwards for the past 10 months. Worldwide, the markets are under pressure.

"A stronger dollar is also making the markets even weaker in the emerging economies as FIIs are pulling out money now. The markets are in a bad shape. It will look at US markets for a direction. It will be a cautious market ahead." US President Obama Barack on Thursday proposed new limits on the size of banks after spending billions of tax-payer dollars to bail them out last year. The proposals aim "to cut down on excessive risk taking" among the largest banks, after crises at a handful of those largest firms threatened to choke the flow of cash to the US economy.

The market completed its four-day losing string, showing clearly weakness by crashing over 781 points or 4.43 per cent in these days.

Stocks across the globe tumbled today following sharp fall on the Wall Street yesterday. Growing concern that China will do more to cool its overheated economy also continued to weigh on the market.

The Asian stocks fell for the fifth day today. Key benchmark indices from China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan ended lower by about 0.65 per cent and 2.56 per cent.

The European stocks also displayed a feeble trend in their morning deals following a steep fall on the Wall Street yesterday.

The Dow registered its biggest two-day drop since June 2008 led by losses in financial shares. The Dow Jones plunged by 213.27 points or two per cent and the Nasdaq tumbled down 25.55 points or 1.1 per cent.

Smart recovery from lower levels in the top heavyweight and petrochem giant Reliance Industries following higher Q3 performance helped the Sensex recovery to some extent, a broker said. Realty, IT, banking, capital goods and pharma counters were at the receiving end while FMCG shares attracted good safe buying interest.

From BSE sectoral indices, the realty dipped by 64.77 points or 1.70 per cent, the IT by 84.72 points or 1.61 per cent, the Bankex by 155.35 points or 1.56 per cent and the Capital doods by 179.25 points or 1.33 per cent, while the FMCG index firmed up by 36.66 points or 1.34 per cent.

Among top losers from the Sensex pack, Tata Steel dropped 3.67 per cent, L&T 3.41 per cent, DLF 2.83 per cent,Sun Pharma 2.69 per cent, Jaiprakash Associates 2.62 per cent, ONGC 2.21 per cent and ACC 2.02 per cent.

However, BHEL rose by 3.26 per cent, ITC by 2.13 per cent and Hero Honda by 1.11 per cent.

Amongst the 30 Sensex counter 26 finished with losses while only four ended with gains. The overall market breadth remained extremely negative as 2,043 counters ended with heavy to marginal losses against 842 that closed with marginal gains on the BSE.
The trading volume improved further to Rs 6,560.62 crore from Rs 6,354.78 crore on Thursday. RIL was the top traded share with a turnover of Rs 234.53 crore followed by L&T (Rs 205.47 crore), Hindustan Copper (Rs 166.18 crore), NMDC (Rs 162.43 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 144.36 crore).