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Sensex collapses 130 points, UTI rescue act ends Sensex 35.54 points lower

The Railway Budget proposals could not cheer the depressed market sentiments on the last day of the current settlement cycle.

Thanks to the buying support extended by the Unit Trust of India at the index-based counters and the immediate statement by the Reserve Bank of India, the market registered an handsome rise though, it reported a moderate loss towards the end compared to the previous levels.

The central bank in a statement issued in Bombay this morning said, "Yesterday's developments have no financial implications on us. Financial markets are expected to continue to function normally."

Reflecting the volatility, the market opened at 3673.45 points, touched the day's high of 3747.57, the Sensex fell below the psychological barrier of 3600 by touching the day's low of 3589.24 (at 1025 hours IST) registering an intraday loss of 132.69 points, but finally recovered to close at 3686.39 points, still showing a net loss of 35.54 points over the previous close of 3721.93 points.

According to marketmen, UTI made purchases at the select counters like Tisco, Bajaj Auto and MTNL while foreign funds also picked up some quantities of Tisco, they said.

Commenting on the day's volatility, BSE vice-president Rajendra Banthia said that the market is presently under pressure due to various factors including the worldwide fall in share prices, nuclear tests by India and Pakistan, and the falling rupee value.

Banthia however hoped that the market would stabilise after the announcement of general budget. He said that the marketmen are very much sure of further market friendly measures by the finance minister for the betterement of the capital market.

The foreign institutional investors were not much active in the market while the local market players were busy in squaring up their positions in view of end account considerations, market sources said.

The BSE-100 index declined by 15.26 points to 1644.14 points against the previous close of 1659.40 points. The BSE-200 and Dollex indices closed lower by 2.99 and 2.97 points to 375.74 and 150.74 points as against the previous close of 378.73 and 152.71 points respectively.

The BSE displayed record turnover of Rs 17.41 billion against the previous day's turnover of Rs 12.89 billion.

Tobacco giant ITC clocked highest business volume at Rs 3.7 billion followed by Satyam Comp Rs 2 billion, Reliance Rs 1.7 billion, ACC Rs 785.1 million, Tisco Rs 768.9 million, Zee Telefilm Rs 577.8 million, SBI Rs 564.3 million, BPL Rs 522.5 million, Videocon Rs 481.3 million, Pentafour Rs 391.4 million, Tata Tea Rs 375 million, Sterlite (P) Rs 336.1 million, Castrol Rs 284.9 million, Hind Petrol Rs 246.4 million and Hind Lever Rs 175.6 million.

Hectic activity was also observed (in B1 group) at the other counters like BFL Softwr, Aptech, HCL Infosys, Wipro, DSQ Software, Silverline, Him Fut Comm, Tata Infosys, Cipla, Maars Soft, Alfa Laval, CMC, Global Tele and RSSoftware.

UNI