Mumbai: Acute
volatility marked trading in Indian equities during the week ended
Friday. The market sentiments were clearly affected by political
uncertainties, poor growth in factory output in India and
continued concern over oil prices due to unrest in the Middle
East.
The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange
(BSE), ended the week at 18,174.09 points, 1.69 percent or 312.36
points down from the previous week's close of 18,486.45 points.
The markets opened the week on a bearish note on concerns of
political instability after the DMK, a southern partner of the
ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), threatened to withdraw
its six ministers from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ministry on
disagreement over seat-sharing for the Tamil Nadu assembly polls,
slated for April 13.
Though the markets rebounded mid-week after the two parties
reached seat-sharing agreement, these slumped again towards the
end of the week on continued concern over oil price due to unrest
in the Middle East and poor economic data.
The benchmark Sensex also slipped 0.84 percent or 153.89 points at
18,174.09 points Friday after the factory output growth fell short
of estimate.
According to official data released Friday, India's factory output
grew slower than expected at 3.7 percent in January compared to
2.53 percent during the previous month and 16.8 percent in the
like month of last fiscal.
Another dampener for the market was a devastating earthquake and
tsunami in Japan Friday.
At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX
Nifty fell 0.89 percent or 48.95 points to close at 5,445.45
points Friday.
Most sectoral as well as broader market indices also ended the
week in negative terrain.
Of the broader markets, both the BSE midcap and smallcap indices
slumped over a percent. The BSE midcap index closed 1.07 percent
down at 6,529.28 points and the BSE smallcap index fell 1.12
percent at 7,899.81 points on last trading day of the week.
There was heavy selling pressure in metal, technology, IT, power,
and consumer goods products.
Markets plunged across the globe Friday after a massive earthquake
hit Japan, further dampening investors' sentiments already shaken
by high oil price and unrest in the Middle East.
The Japanese Nikkei slumped 1.72 percent at 10,254.40 points. A
devastating earthquake hit Japan just before the close of week's
trading at Tokyo stock exchange.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.55 percent at 23,249.80 points and
China's Shanghai Composite index closed 0.79 percent down at
2,933.80 points Friday.
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