Clouds of political uncertainty continued to dog the bourses even as the indices seemed to be recovering from the previous Monday's belting, when the Sensex slid 302 points. The BSE Sensex ended the week at 3550.37 points, down 113.16 points against the previous Friday's close of 3663.53 points.
The NSE Index closed at 1001, losing 56.80 points over the previous week's close. The last day of the week saw both BSE and NSE marginally shedding some of the gains made during the week. Market sources informed that there was heavy squaring up of positions on the last day.
Leading market players are of the view that the indices will continue to move sideways till the political situation at the Centre stabilises. Says Ramachandran, director, Ind Global Securities: The sudden developments on the political front has completely eroded the market faith in the system.
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Even if some party manages to secure a simple majority on April 11, there is no guarantee that it would last beyond a few months. Under such circumstances, no one will be prepared to risk their money in the stock markets.
The Congress decision to withdraw support to the United Front government resulted in the Sensex crashing by 302 points on Monday. Trading volumes at the NSE touched rock bottom with the lowest turnover of Rs 170 crore. Most of the scrips touched the lower end of the circuit filter. But as the week progressed, the market stabilised following indications of a political consensus on the budget.
Barring HLL, BHEL, BSES , Nestle and MTNL, which managed to attract FII buying, all the other pivotals ended the week below previous Friday's levels. FII activity was generally low-key and restricted to scrips like ACC, Ranbaxy, ABB, Colgate and M&M.
BHEL and Bata capitalised on their excellent corporate results and managed to hold on to their gains till the end of the week. BHEL closed at Rs 357.25 and Rs 356.65 at the BSE and NSE respectively, gaining Rs 40.50 and Rs 28.40 over the previous week's close. Bata ended the week at Rs 78 (+Rs 5.75) and Rs 77.35 (+Rs 11.80) at the BSE and NSE respectively. Infosys Technologies was the surprise package of the week following reports of a bonus issue by the company. Infosys was the biggest gainer in the B1 group and touched the circuit filter on the NSE on the last two days of the week.
NEW DELHI: The political uncertainty at the Centre resulted in persistent selling by operators and foreign institutional investors (FIIs). This led to a moderate fall in share prices at the Delhi Stock Exchange during the week ended April 4.
The DSE Index (base-1983) declined to 747.69 points during the week as against the previous week's close of 769.14, losing 21.45 points.
Due to the sudden change in the political scenario, FIIs kept away from the market adopting a wait-and-watch policy. Market sources said the selling spree was so strong that even domestic financial institutions' selective purchases failed to arrest the slide in share prices. But on April 1 and 2, shares prices staged a moderate recovery due to heavy purchases by domestic financial institutions.
The week opened with a heavy loss of 55.93 points to settle at 713.21 points. But on April 1, it went up by 12.27 points to reach 725.48 points. On the following day, it continued to rise and increased by 25.63 points to close at 751.11. On April 3, it fell by 1.09 points to touch 750. On Friday, the Index receded further by 2.33 points to close at 747.69 points.
ACC was one of the main losers during the week. The scrip fell by Rs 80.90 to touch Rs 1380.10 as against the previous week's close of Rs 1461. Apollo Tyres also slid marginally by Rs 5.15 to close at Rs 111.85 as against the previous week's close of Rs 117. Asian Hotels fell by Rs 8 to touch Rs 202 from Rs 210 at the previous week's close. DCM-Daewoo Motors made a negligible gain of 40 paise to touch Rs 17.40.