Mumbai: Sliding for the third day, the BSE benchmark Sensex on Wednesday fell by 49 points to close at a fresh one-week low of 20,062.24, dragged down by over 5.5 per cent drop in L&T shares after its earnings failed to meet market expectations. The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer resumed better and moved in a range of 20,220.35 and 20,000.86, before concluding at 20,062.24, a fall of 49.37 points or 0.25 per cent. This is the lowest closing since 19,722.29 on May 14.
Similarly, the broad-based 50-issue CNX Nifty of the NSE also declined by 19.60 points or 0.32 per cent to 6,094.50. MCX-SX flagship index SX40 closed down by 20.32 points, or 0.17 per cent, at 11,861.05. Engineering and construction giant L&T was the top loser from the Sensex pack after the company's net profit fell by 6.90 per cent on standalone basis for the March 2013 quarter.
"L&T numbers were lower than our expectations," said Sanjeev Zarbade, Vice President - PCG Research, Kotak Securities. Experts said a bearish trend in European region before Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies on the outlook for US economy further influenced domestic market sentiment.
The rupee's falling beyond 55.50-mark against US dollar on Wednesday also affected domestic market sentiment, said a trader. Besides L&T, Sensex constituents including RIL, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Power, GAIL, Sterlite Ind and BHEL were among notable losers. Outside major indices, Purvankara Projects plunged nearly 8 per cent on heavy selling. IT major Tech Mahindra surged over 3.6 per cent after robust Q4 earnings.
"Shares of oil marketing companies corrected sharply on hopes Oil ministry will give in-principle nod to export parity pricing model for petroleum products," said Milan Bavishi, Head Research, Inventure Growth and Securities. Globally, Asian stocks closed mixed with upward bias. Key indices from China and Hong Kong closed lower while those from Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan finished higher. In Europe, the CAC (France) was down by 0.60 per cent, the DAX (Germany) by 0.29 per cent and the FTSE (UK) by 0.25 per cent.
Coming back to India, 16 stocks out of 30-share Sensex finished lower. Apart from L&T whic fell by 5.57 per cent, Tata Power (2.16 pc), Hero MotoCorp (2.04 pc), Gail India (1.34 pc), Sterlite Ind. (1.25 pc), RIL (1.16 pc), BHEL (1.07 pc) and Tata Steel (0.96 pc) were among major losers. In gainers, Sun Pharma rose by 2.90 per cent, followed by Bharti Airtel (2.25 pc), Dr Reddy's Lab (1.84 pc), NTPC (1.48 pc), ITC (1.28 pc) and Wipro (0.91 pc).
Sharing Nifty outlook, Shubham Agarwal, Associate VP & Senior Technical Equities Analyst, Motilal Oswal Securities said: "Nifty remains at the behest of sellers over the short term as long as it trades below 6200. The next level to watch out on the downside is 6000 followed by 5960 which is also its last week's low". Among the sectoral indices, the S&P BSE-CG dipped by 3.67 per cent due to slump in L&T shares, S&P BSE-Realty by 3.47 per cent and S&P BSE-Oil&Gas by 0.98 per cent. S&P BSE-FMCG rose by 0.83 per cent.
Market breadth continued to be negative as 1,449 shares finished with losses while 867 ended with gains. The total turnover was relatively higher at Rs 2,064.84 crore from Rs 1,966.84 crore on Tuesday. Despite fall in the market, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continued their buying and they pumped in Rs 679.44 crore yesterday, as per provisional data with stock exchanges.
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