No terror impact, Indian equities still in green

Friday, 28 November 2008, 20:30 IST
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Mumbai: Despite a general nervousness pervading the investor community due to the global financial and economic meltdown, the Indian equities markets showed resilience Friday and refused to panic following the terrorist attack here, the country's financial capital, with a key index still in the green mid-afternoon. Mid-afternoon, the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) was ruling at 9,041.75, up 15.03 points or 0.17 percent from its previous close at 9,026.72 points. The Sensex opened lower at 8,889.18 and despite some volatility was clearly displaying the same resilience that Indian equities markets have always shown after terror attacks to move up to a high of 9,078.93 points, slipped a tad into red only to climb up again into positive territory. The broader-based 50-share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), however, was marginally in the red and was ruling at 2747.50, down 4.75 points or 0.17 percent from its previous close at 2752.25 points. The BSE midcap was, however, ruling at 2,857.24, down 20.14 points or 0.70 percent from its previous close at 2,877.38 points. The BSE smallcap too was in the red and was ruling at 3,289.88, down 25.01 points or 0.75 percent from its previous close at 3,333.42 points. Markets reopened Friday at the normal time but under 'Z' category security - usually reserved for VVIPs - after remaining closed Thursday following the unprecedented terror attack on the country's financial capital and capital of western India state of Maharashtra. State Chief Minister Vilasrao Desmukh had, however, expressed dissatisfaction Thursday that market authorities and the market regulator had decided to keep markets closed Thursday. Terror should not be allowed to disrupt business, was his view. As markets were closed Thursday, the monthly settlement of futures and options trade had to be deferred to Friday. This also had a bearing on keeping the markets open Friday as two consecutive days of closure would have further eroded investor confidence and almost surely would have sent the markets into a tailspin when it opened Monday, analysts said. This would have been unfair to those holding long positions as they would then have run up huge losses while those holding short positions would have made unfair profits, analysts said. Overnight global clues were positive with a key index of the New York Stock Exchange finishing 3.2 percent higher Thursday and the Nasdaq index too ended 4.6 percent higher. Asian markets too were showing gains Friday morning with the Nikkei, the key index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, up 0.48 percent while the Hang Seng, key index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, up 2.49 percent. Although there will be selling at higher levels and markets may show some volatility, trading will continue to be range bound as there has been no change in the fundamentals, analysts said.
Source: IANS
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