Sensex takes another plunge, drops over 353 points

Mumbai, Aug 7 (PTI) The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark
Sensex on Friday dipped by over 353 points as investors pulled
out money to invest in issues in primary markets.

The Sensex, which had lost 390 points in the previous
Friday's trading, dropped further by 353.79 points at
15,160.24, after touching the day's low of 15,104.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index
Nifty went below 4,500 and settled with a huge loss of 104.10
points at 4,481.40. It touched Friday's low of 4,463.95.

Selling pressure gathered momentum as major market
players and general investors indulged in liquidating
positions in the secondary market to raise funds to subscribe
to NHPC's IPO, the biggest hydroelectric power generator.

Foreign insitutional investors refrained from taking
fresh positions, awaiting a key US jobs report for further
cues amid worries that markets might be getting ahead of
fundamentals.

Barring NTPC, Tata Steel and Wipro, all 30-BSE index
stocks closed down. Consumer durables, auto, realty and
banking stocks suffered heavy losses.

Reliance Industries dropped 2.47 per cent, Infosys 0.62
per cent, ICICI Bank 3.62 per cent and State Bank of India
3.08 per cent. All the four stocks carry nearly 33 per cent
weight on the Sensex.

The sensitive index fell 4.73 per cent in two sessions,
as investors sold heavily on the market's near 19 per cent
rally over the previous three weeks. Earlier, the rally was
driven by strong domestic and global corporate earnings.

The consumer durables index suffered the most, losing
3.92 per cent to 3,013.23.

Next was the auto sector, which fell 3.87 per cent to
5,457.09, extending a 4.4 per cent drop in the previous
session.

Tata Motors slid 0.91 per cent to Rs 414.50 as the rating
of the biggest truckmaker and owner of Jaguar Land Rover was
cut to "neutral" from "overweight" at JPMorgan Chase, which
cited "sedate" sales at Jaguar Land Rover.

The realty index was the third-biggest loser and fell
3.29 per cent to 3,676.95, followed by the banking index, by
2.96 per cent to 8,110.08. PTI RS
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