Business

Early gains not held on BSE

MUMBAI: In highly volatile trade, the Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index pared most of the initial gain of 550 points to end the day with just over four points up on Wednesday on reports of a sharp fall in the country’s industrial growth.

A fag-end selling in heavyweight stocks even placed the Sensex 59 points lower before ending with a marginal gain of 4.83 points at 16127.98.

The index touched the day’s high of 16683.37.

In similar fashion, National Stock Exchange index Nifty moved between 5019.20 and 4854.75 and ended with a gain of 6.10 points at 4872.

Selling pressure gathered momentum on reports that the industrial growth plummeted to 5.3 per cent in January, less than half of what was recorded in the same month last year.

Metal stocks fell the most as its index plunged by 383.83 points to 15688.91 followed by consumer durable index by 57.98 points to 4201.54.

FMCG index lost 23.23 points at 2181.18 and Teck index by 31.39 points at 3024.31.

However, realty stocks supported the market most by rising 100.86 points at 8327.75. Oil and gas index rose by 81.45 points at 10642.09. — PTI

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