Our Bureau

Mumbai, Jan. 18 Investors in the Indian stock market triggered a big sell-off on signals from the performance of US and Asian markets besides local factors. The benchmark indices of the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange fell by roughly 3.5 per cent.

The BSE Sensex opened lower, recovered partially in the forenoon. But that proved short-lived with the benchmark index going below 19,000 level intra-day to a low of 18,930 points before closing at 19,013 down by 687 points from Thursday’s close.

The brunt of the loss was borne by the sectors that had gone up most in recent times. The BSE Oil & Gas index fell by maximum of 5.88 per cent as did the recently launched BSE Realty index, which fell 5.81 per cent. The BSE Bankex fell 5 per cent while PSU and power indices fell by 4.70 per cent and 3.80 per cent respectively.

Mr Nipun Mehta, Co-founder and CEO of Unitis Tower Wealth Advisors, a private wealth management firm, attributed today’s fall to a fair amount of institutional selling as the FIIs booked profit in the Indian market to fund requirements elsewhere in the global markets.

Mr Mehta further said that third quarter results announced so far were good and on the expected lines and yet to see any serious disappointment.

A local colour was added to the day’s fall with the central software used by banks to settle inter-bank transactions developing a glitch.

“The centralised software that handles inter-bank transactions developed a technical hitch, which caused major problems,” said the Head (Research) of a Mumbai based broking firm, adding that today’s fall however was an one-off thing.

Most of index heavyweights came under selling pressure with 24 Sensex stocks ending in the red. The biggest real estate company DLF lost maximum of 7.37 per cent closing at Rs 1,005, Reliance Industries that has maximum weightage on the index too lost 6.57 per cent closing at Rs 2,799; NTPC lost 6.30 per cent falling to Rs 239; the largest private sector bank ICICI fell 5.78 per cent to Rs 1,245 and HDFC Bank fell to Rs 1,575.

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