Sensex sheds 115 points on fund sales

STOCK REPORT

The Bombay Stock Exchange's (BSE) benchmark index on Friday crashed by over 115 points, a biggest fall in about three weeks, as heavy-weighted stocks reacted to massive selling by foreign funds in view of approaching expiry of derivatives December contract.

The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) opened with strength and rallied to 9,442.98 points but mid-session selling pressure reversed an early bullish trend and it fell by 115.39 points to 9,256.91 while Nifty, on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) lost 30.40 points at 2,804.85 points.

The major contributor to the fall in the Sensex came in from the metal, public sector undertaking and oil and gas segment indices.

BSE metal index melted by a whopping 112.47 points at 6,348.55 points after segment majors Tata Steel, Jindal Steel, Sesa Goa and Jindal Stainless registered widespread losses.

PSU index fell by 65.35 points at 5,344.24 with stocks like Bhel, Bharat Electronics, Indian Oil Corporation and Containers Corp of India suffered sharp setbacks.

Auto index down by 33.75 points at 4,228.36 points as counters like Bajaj Auto, Mahindra and Mahindra, Punjab Tractors, Tube Investments, Sundaram Clayton and Hero Honda lost sizeable ground.

Consumer durables index fell by 53.78 points at 3,137.34, Capital goods index by 27.53 points at 5,646.60, FMCG index by 21.44 points at 1,614.68, Bank index by 20.24 points at 5,061.15, Healthcare index by 19.30 points at 3,048.97, Teck index by 17.72 points at 2,429.52, it sector index by 16.57 points at 3,693.36, small-cap index by 49.93 points at 5,817.70 and Mid-cap index by 33.36 points at 4,353.25.