Sensex ends below 19K in choppy trade

Sensex ends below 19K in choppy trade

MUMBAI: In a volatile trade, the BSE benchmark Sensex on Friday snapped the four-day rally, losing about 26 points due to profit-booking and market regulator SEBI’s crackdown on some companies.

The Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index, after gaining nearly 713 points in the last four trading sessions, fell by 25.77 points to 19,966.93.

It received a jolt after the Securities and Exchange Board of India barred Murli Industries, Ackruti City, Welspun Corp Ltd, Brushman India and their respective promoters from trading for allegedly indulging in unfair practices.

The Sensex shuttled between 20,067.81 and 19,877.12 during the day as investors booked profits in realty, consumer durables, metal and banking stocks. However, a rise in information technologies, auto and fast moving consumer goods capped the losses.

The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty also lost 18.9 points to 5,992.80, after moving in the range of 6,025.40 and 5,964.25.

The realty sector index suffered the most by losing 4.29 per cent to 2,951.25 as the stocks of DLF and Reliance Infra lost nearly four per cent each.

The consumer durables index was the second worst performer, dropping 3.63 per cent to 6,386.13, followed by the metal index, down 1.25 per cent to 16,190.43, as Sterlite Industries, the biggest copper producer, slid after BNP Paribas downgraded its ratin g amid a weak trend in non-ferrous metals in the global markets.

The fall was cushioned as IT stocks rose on economic data from the United States, biggest market for the sector, raised the hopes of a hike in revenue. Over 40 per cent revenue of software exporting companies comes from the US and European markets.

As the selling pressure spread over a broad front, the small-cap index fell by 3 per cent to 9,858.98 and the mid-cap sector index by 2.3 per cent to 7,883.02. — PTI