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BSE stayed depressed last week; NSE saw record fall

The depressed trend continued for yet another week on the Bombay Stock Exchange as the Centre's decision to hike import duty added the fuel to the bearish stock markets during the week ended September 18.

Limited support by foreign institutional investors, lack of market moving factors, absence of leading domestic institutional investors, and continued absence of general investors have brought down the BSE Sensex by another 170.82 points or 4.27 per cent, to 3825.12 against the previous week`'s close of 3995.94 points.

Marketmen said that the industries would have to suffer in the coming financial year following the 3 per cent hike in import duty which may affect their performance. The major industries like cement and steel are passing through a crucial period and such a move would make adverse affect on them, they said.

The FII investment in the secondary market declined by almost 50 per cent in recent months and the increase of FII inflow is very much necessary for the healthy growth of the market, sources said.

Mirroring the trend, the BSE sensitive index moved down by 170.82 points to 3825.12 against the previous week's close of 3995.94 points.The BSE-100 index fell further by 76.55 points to 1664.05 points against the previous close of 1740.60 points.

The BSE-200 and dollex indices decreased by 16.41 and 6.82 points to 373.44 and 170.81 points against the previous close of 389.85 and 177.63 points respectively.

The total turnover on BSE, however, registered an increase of Rs 259.3 million to 42.98 billion against the previous week's turnover of Rs 42.72 billion.

The market opened on a positive note as pivotals registered impressive gains on the moderate buying support from FIIs. Surpassing the important mark of 4000 points, the Sensex gained by 22.48 points to 4018.52 points over the previous close of 3995.94 points.

Barring Monday's trading the market witnessed continuous fall in the share prices rest of the week due to heavy bull liquidation by bull operators and speculators. The BSE Sensex fell sharply by about 84 points to 3928.33 over the previous close. The market witnessed further setback on Thursday when the Sensex further went down by 43.56 points to 3884.42 points while losing further by 59.65 points to 3825.12 points on the last day of the week.

Marketmen said that the weak GDR market also demoralised the investors during the week. The Skindia GDR index fell by 1.78 per cent during the same period. The total turnover on the NSE registered a record fall of Rs 36.57 billion to Rs 48.2 billion against the previous week's turnover of Rs 74.77 billion.

A similar trend was witnessed on the National Stock Exchange during the week with share prices resulting in a heavy fall on the leading bourse.

The NSE-50 index fell sharply by 38.55 points to 1104.30 against the previous week's close of 1142.85 points. The midcap index also lost heavily by 44.50 points to 1244.59 points over the previous close of 1289.00 points.

The VSat's connectivity problem had affected trading on the NSE on Tuesday and the authorities were forced to extend the settlement period till Wednesday and to conduct a special trading to facilitate the trading members to square up their positions in view of the end account considerations.

UNI