Exit polls prove a dampener for Sensex

Sterlite, Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors were the principal losers on Thursday on the BSE as the benchmark Sensex dropped further by 147 points on sustained selling, mainly due to the current political uncertainty.

As the day of the Lok Sabha election results approaches, volatility is increasing as risk-averse investors are preferring to book profits at higher levels and not willing to take long positions, a broker said.

The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer moved in a range of 11,935.86 and 11,695.52 before concluding the day at 11,872.91, a fall of 146.74 points or 1.22 per cent from its previous close.

Unicon Financial Intermediaries CEO G Nagpal said, "The market feels that if the UPA comes to power, the formation of a stable government would be difficult. To some extent investor hopes have been dashed by the exit polls.

On Wednesday, it was down by 138.38 points or 1.14 per cent.

The 50-issue Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also dropped further by 41.80 points or 1.15 per cent to 3,593.45 from last close.

In the Sensex family, Sterlite Ind dipped 5.52 per cent, Bharti Airtel 4.13 per cent, Tata Motors 3.04 per cent, Wipro 2.78 per cent, L&T 2.55 per cent, ONGC 2.43 per cent and ICICI Bank by 2.36 per cent. 

Asian markets ended with losses while European markets resumed lower. Hong Kong was down 3.04 per cent, Singapore 2.89 per cent, Japan 2.64 per cent, South Korea 2.37 per cent, Taiwan 1.87 per cent and China by 0.90 per cent.

Germany quoted lower by 0.43 per cent and France by 0.04 per cent while the UK was stable at their opening trade.

Refinery and capital goods counters suffered the most while realty shares attracted good buying.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), however, remained net buyers and they picked up shares worth Rs 4,106.96 crore while domestic funds also were net buyers to the tune of Rs 105.73 crore on May 13 as per provisional data.

The market breadth was slightly positive as 1,263 counters ended with gains against 1,213 that finished with losses on the BSE.