Market down on low volumes, FIIs continue selloff

19 Aug, 2008,

Equities ended lower for the 5th consecutive day on Tuesday as investors remained on the sidelines due to lack of triggers on the domestic front and negative global cues.

Market opened with a gap down and slipped further with European markets trading weak. Towards the end of session, the indices recovered some losses as traders covered short positions.

Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex closed at 14,543.73, down 101.93 points or 0.7 per cent. It touched a high of 14,604.11 and low of 14,368.72 intraday.

National Stock Exchange's Nifty ended at 4386.15, down 7 points or 0.16 per cent from Monday's close. It touched a high of 4,393.70 and low of 4,316.55 during the day.

"We opened lower following weak global markets. There are hardly any positive triggers left to lift the sentiments. Immediate trend is more bearish. There was some short covering towards the end. But it doesn't indicate any kind of trend reversal. Volumes have been drying up and there was not much participation," said independent technical analyst Sachin Chavan.

"For Nifty, 4200 would be a crucial support. On the upside, it will face resistance at 4600. The market will consolidate between these levels," he added.

According to NSE website, total turnover was Rs 8,929.65 crore (provisional), lower than Rs 9,356.98 crore on Monday.

Foreign investors, which have been net sellers in Indian market during the month, sold equity worth Rs 716.35 crore (provisional) today.

"Everyone is waiting for a selling opportunity. If no reforms are announced in 15 days then we may see further downside," said Shyam Kabra, senior analyst, at Nirmal Bang Securities.
Biggest Sensex gainers were Reliance Infrastructure (2.26%), Hindalco Industries (2.08%), ICICI Bank (2.01%), Hindustan Unilever (0.7%) and HDFC Bank (0.59%).

ACC (-5.78%), Maruti Suzuki (-3.9%), HDFC (-3.24%), Satyam Computer (-3.21%), Reliance Communications (-3.06%) and Bharti Airtel (-2.05%) were under pressure.

Market breadth on BSE showed 1,514 declines against 1,107 advances. On NSE, there were 461 advances and 775 declines.

European markets were in the negative on concerns of credit crisis in the US. At the time Indian markets closed, the FTSE 100 was down 1.12 per cent, CAC 40 fell 1.44 per cent and DAX fell 1.16 per cent.
via:E.T