The benchmark Sensex dropped by over 261 points at early stage on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday on funds selling influenced by weak overseas trend and discouraging performance by pharma major Cipla.
MUMBAI: Heavy profit booking ahead of a three-day holiday abruptly cut the five-session winning streak of the stock market on Friday, pushing the benchmark Sensex down by 320 points despite outstanding Q4 earnings from Reliance Industries.
Selling was largely triggered by weak Asian cues and a cautious approach by investors due to a couple of holidays after the weekend. The market will remain closed on May 1 and 2 on account of Maharashtra Day and Buddha Poornima.
The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) opened lower and gradually moved downward to the day's low of 13,884.53 before ending the day at 13,908.58, a net loss of 320.30 points or 2.25 per cent from Thursday's close of 14,228.88.
The Sensex had risen by a whopping 609.18 points or 4.47 per cent between April 20 and 26.
The broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) fell back by 94.35 points or 2.26 per cent to close at 4,083.50 from previous close of 4,177.85.
Friday's fall was seen by analysts as a necessary downward adjustment for the market's sound health.
Despite robust Q4 earnings announced by some prominent corporates, the market is expected to move downward with range-bound movements in the next few sessions as investors might refrain from making fresh commitments at the current levels, according to brokers.
Attributing the fall to a sudden FII slowdown, brokers said the record fourth quarter performance by Reliance Industries (RIL), announced yesterday, failed to stem the rot. Shares of RIL fell by 3.67 per cent.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) reported outflows of Rs 89 crore (provisional) on April 26 while domestic funds were net sellers to the tune of Rs 178 crore.
Refinery shares, which hogged the limelight in five-day surge, suffered a sharp setback. As a result, the BSE Oil&Gas Index plunged by 222.11 points or 3.04 per cent.
The trading volume declined further to Rs 3,770.65 crore from Rs 4,490.15 crore on Thursday. RIL remained the top traded share with the highest turnover of Rs 187.54 crore followed by Cipla (Rs 114.69 crore), India Bull Real Estate (Rs 116.00 crore), Orbit (Rs 111.19 crore) and Bharti Airtel (Rs 82.50 crore).
The broad-based BSE-100 index tumbled by 142.49 points to 7,028.84 from previous close of 7,171.33.
The BSE-200 index and the Dollex-200 were quoted sharply down at 1,662.89 and 675.83 at close compared to last close of 1,694.08 and 690.19 respectively. The BSE-500 Index dropped by 94.92 points to 5,295.49 from previous close of 5,390.41 and the Dollex-30 ended lower at 2,787.48 from 2,858.65.
RIL slumped by 58.55 to 1538.20, ONGC by 31.05 to 929.30, Cipla by 36.15 to 217.10, Tata Steel by 22.80 to 537.65, SBI by 47.25 to 1098.80, ICICI Bank by 30.40 to 933.65, HDFC Bank by 14.05 to 1016.50, HDFC by 49.75 to 1686.15, Grasim by 77.05 to 2421.35, ACC by 8.75 to 821.90, GACL by 1.65 to 117.50, Bajaj Aut by 34.85 to 2456.45, Tata Motors by 18.40 to 748.50, Hero Honda by 11.90 to 668.20, Bharti Air by 35.80 to 826.25, Reliance Com by 13.40 to 460.15, BHEL by 22.40 to 2488.45, HLL b50, Infosys Tech by 10.85 to 2006.80, L&T by 25.35 to 1682.20, REL by 8.45 to 508.90, TCS by 5.05 to 1234.45 and Ranbaxy by 2.20 to 369.95.
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