By IANS
Mumbai : Indian equities were sucked down by a major whirlpool in the global stock markets during the week ended Friday resulting in a key market index taking a hit of almost five percent, and there is little prospect of them surfacing soon.
Amid high volatility and selling pressures, the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) ended Friday at 14,141.52 points, registering a loss of 726.73 points, or 4.89 percent, over last week’s close at 14,868.25 points.
Looking ahead, with little respite seen in the easing of the turmoil in the US mortgage market and hedge fund redemption pressures, analysts do not expect any significant forward movement in Indian stocks.
But they expect investors to look at long-term prospects and hunt for equities that are currently available at attractive prices due to four straight weeks of losses in the past month.
“It will be difficult for Indian markets to shake off the global turmoil,” said an analyst with a leading brokerage here. “With such losses across the world, foreign funds will also find shares cheaper in the global markets than India.”
This was evident from the data released by the market watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which showed foreign institutional investors had sold equities worth $966.5 million during the week under review.
Trading had started on a positive note Monday with the Sensex gaining 148.96 points, or one percent, at 15,017.21 points over last week’s close. Tuesday saw the index shed 16.80 points.
After a day’s break on account of Independence Day Wednesday, the key index lost a whopping 642.70 points, or 4.3 percent, Thursday to register its biggest fall on a single day since May 18 last year.
The losses continued Friday and the index lost 216.69 points, or 1.51 percent, to register an overall loss of 1,148.30 points, or 7.51 percent, over the past month, amid high volatility.