Sensex down 3 percent last week, RIL worst hit


Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex plunged by three percent last week, led by a steep fall of the Reliance Industries (RIL) shares amid fresh capital outflows. The BSE 30-share index hovered in the range between 17,457.26 and 16,721.26 points before closing the week ended October 23, at 16,810.81, down sharply by 515.20 points or 2.97 percent over its preceding weekend's close. Petro-chemical giant RIL suffered the most and led the fall in the Sensex, following the legal battle between the two Ambani brothers - Mukesh and Anil - over gas pricing and on reports of poor gas find in one of its wells, reports PTI. RIL fell by 177.45 or 7.98 percent during the week. On the last day of the trading session, RIL shares nosedived by four percent as its partner, Britain's Hardy Oil and Gas, said it was abandoning work on an exploratory well in a Krishna Godavari basin block owing to poor gas find. Besides IT and FMCG counters that evoked good buying response, all other shares attracted profit-booking and ended the week with sharp to moderate losses. Similarly, the broader 50-issue Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too fell by 144.75 points or 2.82 percent to settle the week at 4,997.05 from its previous weekend's close. According to brokers, the market resumed on a strong note after cabinet's decision to offload five percent stake in power generation major NTPC and 10 percent in another unlisted power firm Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam. After pumping in 1,770 crore on October 20, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), the main market driver, pulled out over 1,160 crore in the next three sessions. Market participants ignored the economic growth projection of 6.75 percent this fiscal by the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council following weak global markets. Some brokers said investors were concerned that the sale of shares worth over 32,000 crore to institutional investors by Indian firms in the last six months could drain liquidity from the secondary market. Rise in the inflation figure to 1.21 percent for the week ended October 10, against 0.92 percent in the previous week, also weighed on the interest rate related counters at the end of the week. Downward march was further fueled as Moody's Investors Service downgraded the ratings of 13 Indian commercial banks after its global review of systemic support indicators for individual banking systems, brokers said. From sectorial indices, the BSE-Oil and Gas plunged by 686.31 points or 6.42 percent, the BSE-Capital Goods by 818.51 points or 5.74 percent, the BSE-Consumer Durables by 183.39 points or 4.80 percent and the BSE-Realty by 164.43 points or 3.51 percent. Among Sensex-based counters, Grasim Industries tumbled by 10 percent, Jaiprakash Associates by 8.64 percent, Tata Motors by 5.75 percent, Larsen and Toubro by 7.10 percent, Tata Steel by 5.75 percent and Reliance Infrastructure by 5.27 percent. The turnover on the BSE and the NSE stood at 22,297.16 crore and 69,176.87 crore.