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Asian markets, Cauvery, Tisco factors sink Sensex by 300 points

The weak trend in Asian markets, political uncertainty at the Centre over the Cauvery waters dispute and subdued performance by steel major Tisco have badly affected market sentiments on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The BSE Sensex registering a loss of about 300 points due to sharp fall in the pivotals during the week ended July 24.

The 30-scrip BSE Sensex crashed by 299.50 points to 3171.30 points against the previous week's close of 3470.80 points.

The market which was passing through a bearish phase in the wake of political uncertainty during the first half of the week over the Cauvery dispute, suffered severe damages due to the major fall in the Asian markets in the later part of the week, following large-scale offloading by foreign institutional investors and bull operators in the heavy-weighted scrips.

Commenting on the bearish phase, Vasudev Joshi, assistant director at the Jardine Fleming, said the FIIs are offloading on the Indian bourses because of the discouraging performance by leading industries. The economy is also not picking up and except software and pharma companies, no other sector is showing encouraging performance.

The Cauvery issue gave a downward direction to the market on the opening day of the week with the Sensex suffering a major loss of 86 points on Monday.

The downgrading of Japan's debt by Moody's rating services dampened sentiment on the Asian markets with the stock markets in Hong Kong, Japan and London and the global depository receipts market in London reacting sharply during the week.

For the first quarter ended June 1998, Tisco reported a 59 per cent drop in net profits to Rs 270 million. Net sales also declined three per cent to Rs 13.53 billion. The Sensex nosedived by 117 points on Thursday reacting to this disappointing performance. The Tisco scrip fell sharply by 23.20 to Rs 104.70 on the BSE during the week.

Among other issues, cement major ACC lost by Rs 156 to touch Rs 1,238, automobile giant Bajaj Auto drifted lower by 28.50 to touch Rs 427.25, BHEL went down by Rs 45 to touch Rs 219.30, Castrol fell by Rs 45.75 to touch Rs 527.25, Glaxo came down by Rs 33.50 to touch Rs 357.25, Hindustan Lever slipped by Rs 62.25 to touch Rs 1,644.75.

Information technology scrips like Infosys Technology fell sharply by Rs 143 to touch Rs 2,469, NIIT moved down by Rs 99.25 to Rs touch 1,401.25, Satyam Computer dropped by Rs 39 to touch Rs 491, petrochem giant Reliance lost by Rs 15.30 to touch Rs 133.70, Telco by Rs 41.20 to touch Rs 126.20, Videocon by Rs 14 to touch Rs 47.40 and Zee Telefilms eased by Rs 36 to touch Rs 517.75.

Total turnover on the BSE decreased by Rs 4 billion to Rs 46.99 billion against last week's turnover of Rs 51.13 billion.

The National Stock Exchange also witnessed bearish phase during the week. The NSE-50 or Nifty Index fell sharply by 80.85 points to 920.10 points against the previous week's close of 1000.95 points.

The Dollar-NSE-50 or Defty Index moved down by 66 points to 749.70 points against the previous week's close of 815.70 points.

The Nifty Junior or Midcap index dropped by 74.30 points to 1404.60 points against last Friday's close of 1478.90 points.

Total turnover on the NSE also declined sharply by Rs 7.87 billion to Rs 66.39 billion compared to the previous week's turnover of Rs 74.26 billion.

UNI