MUMBAI: Heavy selling towards end of
trade, on concerns of high inflation and rising crude oil prices, saw Indian
stock market benchmarks end sharply lower on Thursday.
Market opened
on subdued note ahead of August F&O series expiry and remained choppy with
realty and banking lagging. Profit booking in Reliance Industries and capital
goods majors took benchmarks to new intraday lows.
There were
expectations that inflation for week ended Aug 16 will be close to 12.83 per
cent against previous week’s 12.63 per cent, but traders were cautious on
talk that inclusion of rise in sugar prices take it above 13 per cent.
"We expect wholesale price index to be around 12.85 per cent.
However, one of the main triggers will be sugar prices, which have not been
fully reflected in the WPI index in the recent inflation numbers. If taken into
account, inflation might cross 12.90 per cent," said Krupresh Thakkar, research
analyst, India Capital Markets.
However after market hours,
government data showed WPI inflation was 12.4 per cent.
Bombay Stock
Exchange's Sensex closed at 14,048.34, down 248.45 points or 1.74 per cent after
slumping to a low of 14,002.43 intraday. The high was 14,347.19.
National Stock Exchange's Nifty ended at 4214, down 78.1 points or
1.82 per cent. The index touched a high of 4304.5 and low of 4201.85 during the
day.
Both the indices are near their crucial support levels of
14,000 and 4200.
"On weekly charts, Nifty formed lower bottom and
turned back. There will be event-based movement in the market. If oil softens
and nuclear deal goes through, we may see market rebounding to higher levels or
else we may see hitting lows," said DD Sharma, senior vice president, Anand
Rathi Securities.
Oil prices rose for the fourth day on worries that
tropical storm Gustav may strengthen to become the worst threat to US offshore
oil and gas production. US crude oil for October was at $119.80 per barrel.
The rupee weakened further against the greenback to 43.79/80 per
dollar from the previous 43.71/72, as refiners stepped up dollar purchases.
Hindalco Industries (ex-rights) (-12.60%), Reliance Industries
(-3.45%), Reliance Infrastructure (-3.15%), BHEL (-3.12%) and TCS (-3.05%) were
the major Sensex losers.
Reliance Industries fell after oil
regulator DGH gave nod to transfer 80 per cent of company’s stake in KG D6
gas field to its four unlisted subsidiaries.
Maruti Suzuki (0.61%),
Satyam Computers (0.52%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (0.51%) and Tata Power (0.44%)
were the major Sensex gainers.
BSE Oil&Gas Index ended 2.57 per
cent lower followed by BSE Capital Goods Index down by 2.23 per
cent.
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