Sensex loses 44 points as cement stocks dip

MUMBAI, MAY 3. Led by cement stocks, share prices suffered a moderate setback pushing the Sensex down to close below the 3500- level in narrowly mixed activity on Bombay Stock Exchange today due to selling pressure from operators and speculators as well as lack of FII activity.

Reports of a further fall in cement prices at a time when the effect of higher realisations has started showing effect on the bottomlines of cement companies had sentimental impact on the market.

The BSE sensitive index opened moderately down at 3528.70 and later fluctuated in a narrow range of 3551.80 and 3479.81 before closing at 3494.48 against yesterday's close of 3538.42, a net loss of 43.94 points. The BSE-100 index eased by 4.58 points to 1693.81 from 1698.39.

The broking fraternity were also disappointed by the decision of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to lift the ban on short sales from July 2 when rolling settlement will be introduced, dealers said adding that ``it makes no difference to operators as already there is a proposal to ban forward trading the same time".

Earlier, domestic operators and speculators had expected the market regulator to allow carry forward system in the rolling settlement and enlarge commitments yesterday.

Even as technology stocks stretched their winning streak to four sessions lifting the Nasdaq composite index by another 52.36 points on American markets yesterday, the market remained hesitant in view of net sales made by foreign institutional investors on Monday.

Operators were not willing to hold long positions ahead of the SEBI board meeting on Saturday to take up the proposal to ban the carry forward mechanism, dealers said.

Had it not been for the two heavyweights Hindustan Lever and Reliance Industries which notched up modest gains, the Sensex would have been still lower. Of the 30 index-based counters, 24 registered marked losses.

The BSE-200 and the Dollex were quoted down at 367.20 and 130.49 against 368.34 and 131.01 respectively. The BSE-500 moved down by 3.55 points to 1079.40 from 1082.95.

The volume of business was low at Rs. 1,134.86 crores. Wipro recorded the highest turnover of Rs. 179.57 crores followed by Satyam Computer (Rs. 121.82 crores), Infosys Technologies (Rs. 96.66 crores), Digital Equipment (Rs. 83.56 crores) and Global Telesystems (Rs. 76.38 crores).

- PTI

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