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Equities dip sharply as political storm hits market; Nifty down 52 points to 1011.40

Political uncertainty at the Centre affected the market sentiment badly at the National Stock Exchange as equities declined sharply following all-round selling pressure from bull operators and institutional investors today.

The political uncertainty demoralised the bull operators who had resorted to selling spree in fear of major political crisis, pushing down the S&P CNX Nifty index by over 52 points in a single trading session.

Reflecting the downtrend, the S&P CNX Nifty index opened at 1030.65 points, touched the day's high of 1036.45 points, fell to the day's low of 1008.35 points, before closing at 1011.40 points, showing a net loss of 52.05 points as against the previous close of 1063.45 points.

The CNX Nifty Junior fell sharply by 117.45 points to 1954.45 points from the previous close of 2071.90 points. The S&P CNX Defty ended lower by 42.55 points to 825.85 points as against the previous close of 868.40 points. The S&P CNX-500 and CNX Midcap 200 declined by 37.87 and 36.31 points to 714.77 and 661.07 points as against the previous close of 752.64 and 697.38 points respectively.

Total turnover on the NSE reported during the day was Rs 18.76 billion came from a trading of 55.59 million shares in 240,686 trades. Debentures traded were valued at Rs 3.91 million.

Today, 113 securities advanced, 907 declined, 47 remained unchanged while 202 securities hit their price bands today.

Satyam Computers topped the list of turnover by registering the highest turnover of Rs 4.17 billion, followed by Pentafour Software Rs 2.62 billion and ITC Rs 1.33 billion.

Other actively traded counters were ACC (Rs 758 million), Rolta (Rs 721.8 million), SBI (Rs 656.7 million), Ranbaxy (Rs 641.2 million), Digital Equipment (Rs 619.4 million), Silverline (Rs 585.7 million), Reliance (Rs 573.1 million), Tata Tea (Rs 419.9 million), L&T (Rs 407.1 million), Infosys Technologies (Rs 370.7 million), HCL-HP (Rs 360.3 million), NIIT (Rs 259.3 million), Zee Telefilms (Rs 239.3 million), Sterlite (Rs 212.5 million), Glaxo (Rs 179.5 million), BPL (Rs 171.1 million), Hindustan Lever (Rs 159.6 million), WartDeisel (Rs 143.9 million), Thomas Cook (Rs 140.4 million), Nestle (Rs 125.5 million), Wockhardt (Rs 118.3 million) and Castrol (Rs 114.8 million).

None of the scrips reported gain while the losers were Great Eastern Shipping at Rs 21.25 (Rs 23.10), ABB Rs 404.35 (Rs 439.50), BHEL Rs 217.15 (Rs 236), Telco Rs 153.25 (Rs 166.55), SBI Rs 190.30 (Rs 206.80).

The wholesale debt market of the NSE witnessed trades worth Rs 10.94 billion. The 11.40 per cent government loan maturing in 2000 was traded for Rs 1.35 billion at a weighted yield of 10.73 per cent. The 11.98 per cent government loan maturing in 2004 was traded for Rs 1.20 billion at a weighted yield of 11.49 per cent. The 12.5 per cent government loan maturing in 2004 was traded for Rs 890 million at a weighted yield of 11.45 per cent.

UNI

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