Selling knocks off 41 points in Sensex

MUMBAI, AUG. 17. Late selling in select pivotals, led by Reliance Industries, cut-short a two-session rally on the Bombay Stock Exchange today, resulting in the Sensex losing 41.20 points at close to 3296.71. The steep fall in the Sensex could be gauged by a sharp to moderate decline in heavyweights such as Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroluem, Hindustan Lever, Infosys Technology, Satyam Computer, Grasim, ACC, L&T, ITC and SBI. However, Zee Telefilms, BHEL and Cipla bucked the general bearish trend and made a feeble attempt to stem the Sensex fall, dealers said.

Reflecting the overnight's positive reversal in the Nasdaq composite index, the BSE-30 share sensitive index opened on a promising note at 3341.95 and immediately touched a high of 3359.07.

Fag end selling in key index heavyweights, mainly by local institutions, pulled down the benchmark to a low of 3293.83 before closing at 3296.71 against yesterday's close of 3337.91. The BSE-100 index also declined by 16.71 points to 1551.76 from 1568.47.

Sentiment was adversely affected by a news report that a large corporate house was involved in alleged manipulation of public funds in the Unit Trust of India imbroglio, a broker said.

Foreign institutional investors reportedly slowed down their purchases while local institutions and mutual funds continued to book profit in select counters.

Philips India was the top gainer on expectation of a second open offer to buy out the remaining stake held by the public.

In the specified group, 94 including 19 index-based scrips registered sharp to moderate losses while 76 others closed with gains.

- PTI

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