FII unloading drags Sensex down 42 pts

Mumbai, Sept 20: Equities reacted afresh at The Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE) on Friday following renewed unloading by foreign funds, as talk of war and global economic uncertainties cut short a two-session rally, leaving the Sensex down by 42.50 at 2761.66.

However, continued buying by local funds, led by Unit Trust of India (UTI) in select index based old economy shares, helped the Sensex mitigate the fall, dealers said.

Software counters continued to reel under nervous selling following sustained downslide on the Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite Index dropped by 144.27 points and 27.28 points respectively last night.

The negative turnaround was mainly attributed to reports that the US had begun to reposition its forces for military operation to stamp out global terrorism, a dealer commented. Bearish sentiment in South-East Asian stock markets like Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore at close on Friday also partly dampened the sentiment, he added.

Depicting the downtrend trend, the Sensex opened lower at 2781.46 and dropped further to a low of 2674.82. However, it recovered later to close at 2761.66 as against Wednesday’s close of 2804.16, still showing a fall of 1.52 per cent.

Wednesday’s favourite cement counters dropped sharply on heavy profit booking while power sector shares attracted brisk buying
support.

— PTI