By IANS,
Mumbai : A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Friday closed 181 points lower as selling continued, especially in real estate stocks, over the bribery scam involving senior officials of financial institutions and some real estate developers.
The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 19,391.96 points, closed at 19,136.61 points, down 181.55 points or 0.94 percent from its previous close at 19,318.16 points.
It had fallen to an intra-day low of 18,954.82 points.
At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the 50-share S&P CNX Nifty ended at 5,751.95 points, down 0.82 percent.
Broader markets indices suffered more losses, with the BSE midcap index ending 3.06 percent down and the BSE smallcap index closing 4.49 percent lower.
The CBI Wednesday arrested senior officials from LIC Housing Finance, LIC, Bank of India, Central Bank of India and Punjab National Bank for allegedly accepting bribes to extend loans to realty companies.
Also on the CBI’s scanner are a number of realty companies which were beneficiaries of such loans.
As a result, realty stocks were hammered Friday as well and were among the biggest losers.
Among gainers on the Sensex at this time were TCS, up 2.14 percent at Rs.1,045.50; Cipla, up 1.61 percent at Rs.340.10; SBI, up 1.16 percent at Rs.2,858.85; and Tata Power, up 1.15 percent at Rs.1,291.55.
Major losers included Jaiprakash Associates, down 8.04 percent at Rs.105.75; Reliance Infra, down 6.59 percent at Rs.850.25; Reliance Com, down 5.51 percent at Rs.130.30; and Sterlite Industries, down 3.62 percent at Rs.161.
The market breadth was negative, with only 485 stocks advancing, compared to 2,508 scrips on the decline, while 79 stocks were unchanged.
According to data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), foreign institutional investors sold scrips worth $116.6 million Friday.
Other Asian markets ended lower after North Korea warned South Korea that any “escalated confrontation” will lead to war.
Also, People’s Bank of China’s nudge to commercial banks to curtail lending for rest of the year, added to fears that Beijing may take more steps to curb inflation.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was ending 0.77 percent lower at 22,876.23 points, while the Shanghai Composite index was closing 0.92 percent down at 2,871.7 points.
The Japanese Nikkei closed 0.4 percent lower at 10,039.56 points.
European markets were in the red as well with Irelands’s problems with its sovereign debt cast a shadow on investor sentiments.
Around mid-day, Britain’s FTSE 100 was trading 1.52 percent down at 5,612.03 points, while the German DAX was 1.3 percent lower at 6,790.17 points.
The French CAC 40 was 1.66 percent down at 3,697.81 points.