Market turns distinctly weak; Sensex, Nifty down 1.5 per cent

Mumbai: Distinctly weak tendency prevailed for the third week in a row as the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex and the CNX Nifty plunged by another 1.5 per cent to close at almost four-month low on host of negative factors during the truncated week under review. The BSE and the NSE were closed on May 1, for observing "Maharashtra Day" holiday. Sustained withdrawal by foreign funds, lingerings tax concerns, lower-than-expected fourth quarter earnings by some key corporates so far, prediction of below normal monsoon and profit-booking by wary operators in the absence of any positive trigger continued to daunt the market sentiment.

Offloading long positions rather than rolling over to next series by operators during the week as April 30 was the last day of derivatives contract too weighed negatively. Heavy sell-off was seen mainly in FMCG counters following forecast of below normal monsoon that might keep the main rural fraternity away from making more purchases as they continued to be major driver of the income of these companies.

As a result, the S&P BSE FMCG index was the top loser from the sectoral indices with a steep fall of 5.19 per cent. Tobacco giant, ITC, was down by 7.71 per cent and HUL by 4.50 per cent. Besides FMCG, metal, Oil & Gas, healthcare, consumer durable, teck and IT counters too were at the receiving end. Contrary to the market sentiment, some of the banking, auto and power stocks were in demand on good buying support.

The BSE 30-share indicator, on the onset of the week, logged a high of 27,567.22 but, excepting Tuesday when it showed some sign of recovery, continued to remain in negative terrain to fell below 27K-mark at 26,897.54 before recovering some ground to close the week at 27,011.31, revealing a fall of 426.63 points or 1.55 per cent.