Sensex runs out of steam, falls 502 pts

The euphoria the market built a couple of days ago with a gain of 838 points lost its steam under pressure from global markets. The 30 stock BSE Sensex fell by 502 points or 3.4 per cent on Friday.

America’s Dow Jones Industrial was down 2.4 per cent on Thursday and as the day began the Asian markets remained under pressure. Japan’s Nikkei fell by 2 per cent, Hang Seng of Hong Kong closed the day with a fall of 1.5 per cent. “The global market trend was not supportive and led to the fall,” said D.D Sharma, vice president research, AnandRathi, a brokerage.

“The global negative factors are still present,” said Rajesh Jain, head of research, SMC Global. “Oil prices are still high, sub-prime crisis is yet not over and the inflationary pressure also exists.”

In the mid trading session the markets were in the recovery phase but six consecutive blasts in Bangalore battered the market down 200 points in the last two hours. “As the sentiments are weak any bad news brings along uncertainty to the market,” said Sharma.

BSE banking index that gained 10 per cent on Wednesday closed with a fall of 5.8 per cent on Friday. “The sharp recovery over the past week in the banking index was due for some correction,” said Sharma.

Defensive sectors like fast moving consumer goods (up 0.26 per cent) and healthcare were up marginally. All others, including oil and gas, real estate and capital goods were down.