Sensex closes 45 points down, banking stocks fall

Mumbai: After three consecutive days of falls, a benchmark index of the Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex), closed 45 points or 0.17 percent down during a very volatile trade session on Friday.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed in the negative zone. It closed the day's trade 16 points or 0.20 percent down at 8,114.70 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 26,819.82 points, closed the trade at 26,768.49 points, down 44.93 points or 0.17 percent from the previous day's close at 26,813.42 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 27,014.42 points and a low of 26,718.44 points in the intra-day trade.

Around 2.30 p.m. the Sensex had gained over 200 points. However, the gains were soon wiped-off over the concerns on Greek debt crises.

On Thursday, the Sensex closed marginally down by 24 points or 0.09 percent. It had slumped over 350 points on Wednesday, while on Tuesday it crashed over 660 points on the back of a less-than-expected easing of the monetary policy by the Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) and the hawkish outlook given by it.

Analysts tracking the day's trade said that the markets witnessed sharp and volatile movements during the day.

The analysts said that the markets made healthy gains on back of the news that southwest monsoon has arrived in Kerala, but the higher levels of selling wiped-out all its gains on concerns of Greece decision to defer its payment to IMF (International Monetary Fund).

"Global market is cautious regarding Greek issue. Global bond yields are inching up while oil and commodity prices are consolidating," said Vinod Nair, head for fundamental research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

"In such environment Indian market is volatile led with disappointment from post the RBI meet and outperformance in China," Nair added.

Gaurav Jain, director, Hem Securities said: "Investors continue to be worried about Greek woes, monsoon worries, sell-off by foreign portfolio investors and weak global cues."

"Few macro-economic data, progress of monsoon, rupee-dollar movement and interests of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) will shape the trend for the coming week," Jain added.

During Friday's trade, healthy buying was observed in metals, capital goods, healthcare, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and oil and gas sectors.

However, heavy selling was observed in stocks like banking, automobile, information technology (IT), technology, entertainment and media (TECK), and realty.

The S&P BSE metal index augmented by 165.26 points, capital goods index gained by 132.60 points, healthcare index was higher by 107.67 points, FMCG index increased by 77.88 points and oil and gas index was up by 63.48 points.

However, the S&P BSE banking index receded by 190.06 points, followed by automobile index which declined by 108.65 points, IT index was lower by 86.04 points, TECK index decreased by 27.50 points and realty index was down by 20.60 points.

The major Sensex gainer on Friday were: Coal India, up 4.44 percent at Rs.405.60, Gail, up 3.42 percent at Rs.386.80, NTPC, up 2.52 percent at Rs.140.15, ONGC, up 2.32 percent at Rs.308.40; and Sun Pharma, up 1.97 percent at Rs.848.55.

The major losers were: ICICI Bank, down 2.18 percent at Rs.284.50; Tata Motors, down 2.11 percent at Rs.442.60; HDFC, down 1.62 percent at Rs.1,198; Axis Bank, down 1.38 percent at Rs.548.35; and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), down 1.30 percent at Rs.2,572.35.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed lower by 0.13 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index rose by 1.54 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined by 1.06 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was lower by 0.96 percent. France's CAC 40 receded by 1.61 percent, Germany's DAX Index was down by 1.30 percent at the closing bell here.