Equities suffer fresh setback

MUMBAI, JUNE 25. Equities received a fresh beating as operators and speculators resorted to heavy unloading, bringing the Sensex sharply down by about 63 points on the opening day of new account on the Bombay Stock Exchange today.

Reports that the Unit Trust of India was seeking a Rs. 1,500 crores loan from the State Bank of India to meet mounting redemption pressures and pay dividend on Unit Scheme-1964 sparked off selling pressure.

Speculators have started winding up whatever outstandings on the first day itself with the last settlement in their hand to square up positions before the new trading system which comes into force from July 2.

The market still had net outstandings of about Rs. 400 crores as on last Friday and operators are required to wind up these positions in the next four sessions, dealers said, adding that the positions created before May 14 are allowed to be squared up by the first week of September.

IT stocks bore the brunt of the onslaught and several of them closed above 8 per cent lower circuit filter with some hitting the extended 16 per cent lower price band and others ending near the price limit.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened lower at 3378.17 against last Friday's close of 3381.76, and later gradually moved downwards to a low of 3306.83 before closing at the two-month low at 3318.67, a net fall of 63.09 points or 1.87 per cent. The BSE- 100 index dropped sharply by 51.99 points to 1568.21 from the previous close of 1620.20.

Forty specified counters including prominent new economy stocks such as Satyam Computers, NIIT, SSI, DSQ Software and Himachal Futuristic touched the 52-week low.

In the specified group, 152 including 24 index-based shares registered sharp to moderate losses while 19 others finished with moderate gains.

The BSE-200 index and the Dollex were quoted sharply down at 345.52 and 122.42 compared with last weekend's close of 356.40 and 126.22 respectively.

The volume was extremely low at Rs. 864.73 crores.

- PTI

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Section  : Business
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