Mumbai. The benchmark index Sensex fell 739 points and Nifty also remained in loss on Friday due to selling trend in global markets due to technical glitch of Microsoft and profit booking after four days of record rise at domestic level. Traders said that the fall in the shares of giant company Reliance Industries also helped in bringing down the market.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex fell 738.81 points or 0.91 percent to close below 81,000 points at 80,604.65. Although it had reached a new all-time high of 81,587.76 in early trade, it broke down under the pressure of profit booking. At one point during trading, the Sensex fell 844.36 points to 80,499.10. The Sensex had touched the 81,000 mark for the first time on Thursday.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) index Nifty closed at 24,530.90, down 269.95 points or 1.09 percent. It had initially reached a new record peak of 24,854.80 but later weakened. At one point during trading, it fell 292.7 points to 24,508.15.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said, “The domestic market closed with a decline due to the global sell-off due to disruption in the Microsoft operating system. This technical disruption has also affected the functioning of many Indian industries. There was a lot of profit booking in the market before the budget comes next week.” Among the companies included in the Sensex group, Tata Steel fell by more than five percent, while JSW Steel shares also fell by about five percent. Tata Motors, NTPC, UltraTech Cement, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Power Grid, Mahindra & Mahindra and Reliance Industries were other major laggards.
On the other hand, the positive results of the leading information technology company Infosys led to a rise of about two percent in its shares. Shares of ITC, Asian Paints and HCL Technologies also closed with gains. The BSE Midcap index fell by 2.31 percent while the Smallcap index fell by 2.22 percent. All sectoral indices closed lower, of which the metal sector fell the most by 4.11 percent. The commodity sector fell by 3.07 percent, the oil and gas sector by 2.87 percent and the power sector by 2.67 percent.
On weekly basis, BSE Sensex gained 85.31 points or 0.10 percent while NSE Nifty gained 28.75 points or 0.11 percent. Religare Broking Limited’s Senior Vice President (Research) Ajit Mishra said, “The market lost its gains made in the last trading session due to profit booking. This decline before the budget indicates caution.” In other Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng were down while China’s Shanghai Composite closed with gains.
European markets were trading with a decline. US markets were in a downtrend on Thursday. Global oil benchmark Brent crude fell 0.07 percent to $85.05 per barrel. According to stock market data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) made net purchases of shares worth Rs 5,483.63 crore on Thursday. The Sensex jumped 626.91 points to a new high of 81,343.46 on Thursday and the Nifty closed at an all-time high of 24,800.85, up 187.85 points.