Sensex, Nifty down by about one per cent

MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex on Thursday fell by 145 points in volatile trade as investors squared up positions in derivatives ahead of the expiry of May contract amid weak global cues.

Terming the roll over of positions to next series as normal, market players said operators and retail investors generally follow this process to avoid margin calls.

The Sensex opened weak and gradually moved downward to the intra-day low of 14,174.05. It later ended at 14,218.11, a net fall of 145.15 points or 1.01 per cent from Wednesday's close of 14,363.26.

The broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) dropped by 41.30 points or 0.97 per cent to close at 4,204.90 from previous close of 4,246.20.

Taking a cue from weakness in Asian markets, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and domestic funds resorted to selling pressure while operators were engaged in roll over of outstanding positions in derivatives.

Some brokers, however, attributed heavy selling pressure at the fag end of session to speculation that the NSE may impose extra margins on derivatives positions.

Top heavyweight Reliance Industries, which has remained in the limelight in the last couple of weeks, bore the brunt of selling pressure and fell sharply.

Other heavyweights like SBI, Tata Steel, REL, Reliance Comm, HDFC Bank, HDFC, ACC, Bharti Airtel and L&T also showed substantial losses due to the sell-off.

NTPC, however, rose on keen buying interest. 

The market breadth remained negative with 1,527 losers against 1,027 gainers of the total 2,646 traded shares.

The trading volume fell sharply to Rs 4,458.35 crore from Rs 5,316.04 crore on Wednesday. Reliance Capital recorded the highest turnover of Rs 247.19 crore followed by RIL (Rs 147.63 crore), Advanta (Rs 133.08 crore), ICRA (Rs 127.88 crore) and Divi's Lab (Rs 110.05 crore).

The broad-based BSE-100 index dropped further by 62.04 points to 7,305.63 from previous close of 7,367.67.

The BSE-200 index and the Dollex-200 were quoted down at 1,729.80 and 710.04 at close compared to previous close of 1,743.35 and 715.39 respectively. The BSE-500 Index moved down by 39.23 points to 5,527.07 from last close of 5,566.30 and the Dollex-30 ended lower at 2,877.97 from 2,906.49.

RIL dipped by 30.35 to 1725.40, SBI by 20.95 to 1284.85, HDFC by 46.35 to 1754.95, HDFC Bank by 21.60 to 1089.60, REL by 19.30 to 551.15, Grasim by 37.50 to 2466.95, ICICI Bank by 6.90 to 909.65, Tata Steel by 27.30 to 631.60, Maruti Udyog by 4.15 to 810.95, ONGC by 9.85 to 902.80, Reliance Comm by 16.75 to 493.75, ACC by 28.90 to 857.95, Bharti Airtel by 13.20 to 836.00, Hero Honda by 16.75 to 676.95, L&T by 28.65 to 1701.60 Ranbaxy Lab by 7.80 to 381.70, TCS Ltd by 8.40 to 1223.90, BHEL by 9.40 to 2708.30, Dr Reddy's Lab by 5.55 to 649.45 and Wipro by 3.20 to 531.90.

However, NTPC firmed up by 6.70 to 162.35, Satyam Computr by 3.75 to 456.00, Infosys Tech by 19.45 to 1936.60, HLL by 2.80 to 201.25 and Tata Motor by 4.05 to 712.