Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Sensex, Nifty End 2% Lower Ahead Of US Fed Meet

MUMBAI: Key indices ended sharply lower Wednesday as equities across the globe remained nervous ahead of US Federal Reserve's crucial meet on interest rates. Oil & gas shares posted massive losses with heavyweights ONGC and Reliance Industries leading declines.

Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex provisionally settled at 17,746.96, down 1.91 per cent or 345 points, after plunging to a low of 17,683.51 during the day. The high was 18,129.18.

National Stock Exchange's Nifty ended at provisional 5163.40, down 2.2 per cent or 117 points. Intra-day, the index fell to a low of 5142.25.

Losers were led by Reliance Energy (down 5.48%), Hindustan Unilever (5.19%), ONGC (5.08%), Reliance Communications (4.80%), NTPC (4.56%), Reliance Industries (4.19%), DLF, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, and ICICI Bank were down 3.31-3.05%.

The top Sensex gainers comprised BHEL (up 1.76%), HDFC (1.11%), Ambuja Cement (0.94%), ACC (0.78%), Bharti Airtel (0.66%), Tata Steel (0.63%), Wipro and TCS were flat.

Second rung shares were not spared either. BSE Mid- and Small-cap Index shed 2.57 per cent and 2.2 per cent, respectively.

Across BSE, 2,008 shares declined against 738 advances, while on NSE, 949 shares gained and 261 fell.

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