Bear hammering pushes down Sensex

MUMBAI, APRIL 19. Equities lost initial gains and even registered sharp falls pushing the Sensex down by another 80 points at close on the Bombay Stock Exchange today in the wake of sustained bear hammering despite continued upsurge on Wall Street.

Reflecting the fresh onslaught, the BSE sensitive index that had spurted to the day's high of 4901.50 at the early stages, later tumbled to a low of 4571.12 before ending at 4665.81 against yesterday's close of 4745.47, netting a fall of 79.66 points. The BSE-100 index also slipped by 65.38 points to 2500.81 from 2566.19. The Sensex has fallen by over 875 points from April 12 onwards, making a new record of consistent fall in straight five sessions.

Bears had an upper hand over bulls in the ongoing battle in the market and singled out select volatile scrips in which a leading bull has high stake, for hammering down their prices in spite of favourable factors, market sources said.

The initial positive impact of a 41 per cent growth in the net profit of Reliance for the fiscal 1999-2000 and a second successive rise in Nasdaq composite index by over 250 points and Dow Jones industrial averages by about 190 points yesterday, was wiped out due to late distress selling.

- PTI

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Section  : Business
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