Sensex falls by 336.62 points

Mumbai, June 07: The Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today was quoted below 17k and finished negative at 16,781.07 with a big loss of 336.62 points.

BSE index closed down 1.97%, or 336.62 points, to finish at 16,781.07 points, after it had gained 1.5% last week.It registered the day’s high and low at 17,069.77 and 16,686.73 points respectively.

For the year-to-date, India’s benchmark Sensex is down only 3.9%, outperforming its peers such as China’s Shanghai Composite index, which has dropped 23.4% and Brazil’s Bovespa, which has shed 10.1%.

Reliance Communications closed 4.6% higher at Rs175.90. About 11.1 million shares were traded, about more than five times the full-day average of nearly 2 million in the past 30 days.

Top lender State Bank of India shed 2.3% while leading private-sector lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank declined 2.8% and 0.4%, respectively.

However, real estate firms DLF, state-run utility NTPC and outsourcer Wipro, three index firms that will be impacted by the new listing rule, fell between 0.4 and 6.2%.

Metals makers witnessed a steep decline as London copper slumped to near eight-month lows and Shanghai metals hit their downside limit.

Aluminium maker Hindalco and non-ferrous metal producer Sterlite Industries closed 5.1% and 4.2% lower, respectively.

Tata Steel, the world’s eighth-largest steel producer, dropped 4.6% while Jindal Steel and Power fell 2.6%.

In the broader market, more than two shares declined for every share that advanced, on low volume of 251 million shares.
The 50-share NSE index closed nearly 2% lower at 5,034.

Broadly, MSCI’s all-country world stock index was down 1.1% by 1019 GMT and its emerging market counterpart shed 2.4%.

Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also touched below 5100 barrier and finished low at 5,034.00 with a loss of 101.50 points.

It recorded the day’s high and low at 5,132.95 and 5,004.25 points respectively.

—Agencies