Mumbai, July 27: The benchmark sensex continued its downslide for the second day in a row and dropped by about 86 points to close at two-week low of 18,432.25 on disappointing results by BHEL and selling in some key heavyweights.
The market that suffered a sharp setback yesterday due to hefty rise in key interest rates by the central bank, resumed better with the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer touching a high of 18,578.55.
But announcement of Q1 results by BHEL yesterday after market during trading hours, impacted negatively and it fell back to settle at 18,432.25, a net fall of 85.97 points or 0.46 per cent. Yesterday, it had tumbled by 353 points or 1.87 per cent on hike in key interest rates by the apex bank.
State-run power equipment maker, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) plunged by 4.40 per cent over yesterday’s slide of 4.46 per cent.
Fall in RIL, ICICI Bank, L&T, SBI, Tata Motor and Hindalco too aided the decline in sensex.
Shares of the capital goods, power, banking and realty suffered the most for the second day on selling pressure.
Offloading long positions ahead of the expiry of July contract tomorrow also weighed on the market.
Asian markets ended narrowly mixed as the US remained without a deal to prevent default before an August 2 deadline and amid some unexpected economic data from the region.
The key benchmark indices in Hong Kong and Japan closed with small losses while from China, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan finished with gains.
European stocks, however, were trading lower in their afternoon deals. The CAC was down by 0.79 per cent, the DAX by 0.17 per cent and the FTSE by 0.08 per cent.
The broad-based NSE 50-issue Nifty also declined further by 28.05 points or 0.50 per cent to 5,546.80.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned net sellers and they sold shares worth Rs 177.75 crore yesterday as per provisional data.
Overall, 20 out of 30 index-based scrips closed with losses while others setled with gains. Other losers were Jaipra Asso (3.28 pct), Hindalco (2.67 pct), Wipro (1.82 pct), REL Infra (1.78 pct), Tata Motors (1.68 pct), SBI (1.58 pct), ICICI Bank (1.52 pct), L&T (1.38 pct) and RIL (1.20 pct).
However, Maruti Suzuki rose by 2.42 pct, REL Com by 1.58 pct, HDFC by 1.33 pct, Bharti Airtel by 1.32 pct and DLF by 1.28 pct.
From sectoral indices, the BSE-CG dipped by 1.86 per cent, BSE-Power by 1.51 per cent, Bankex by 1.04 per cent and BSE-Realty by 0.98 per cent.
The total market breadth at BSE remained negative with 1,498 stocks losing ground against 1,345 finishing with gains.
The turnover moved down further to Rs 2,779.08 crore from Rs 2,899.08 crore yesterday.
Hegde said in the course of investigations they found that a company dealing in iron ore donated Rs 10 crore to the Trust run by family members of the Chief Minister.
From the Trust, a mining company purchased an acre of land for Rs 20 crore far above the guidance value of Rs 1.40 crore, he said.
“This payment has been made to the Trust which has nothing to do with the donating company which has not been doing well but borrowed money from another company and donated this. I find this extremly difficult to understand this abnormal high price.
“We have come to an incontrovertible conclusion that this donation and sale consideration has been made for reasons other than genuine reasons.” he added.
Replying to questions, Hegde confirmed that the report makes a mention of the CM, his family members, Reddy brothers, Sriramulu and Kumaraswamy and over 600 officials.
In the case of Kumaraswamy, the enquiry found “misconduct” on his part regarding grant of two mining leases and action has been recommended under PCA.
—Agencies