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Rouble trouble pressures Sensex bubble; 2867.99

A downward trend continued on the Bombay Stock Exchange with the companies having good export business with Russia reacting sharply on the rouble's devaluation, pushing down the BSE Sensex by 49 points to close below the psychological barrier of 2900 points today.

According to leading BSE brokers, the pharma giant Dr Reddy's, market leader ITC, Ranbaxy declined sharply on the fears of possible fallout of the rouble's devaluation on their trade.

Besides these scrips, MTNL, State Bank of India, Colgate and BHEL also came under heavy selling pressure, the brokers added.

Reflecting the bearish trend, the BSE Sensitive Index opened higher at 2914.92, fell to touch the day's low of 2853.72 and touched the day's high of 2915.84 points and finally ended at 2867.99 points, showing a net loss of 49.08 points over the previous close of 2917.07 points.

The Sensex has lost nearly 200 points in last seven trading sessions. The market is already passing through a bearish phase due to fluid political situation in the wake of various issues and the fresh developments on the issue of transfer of Enforcement Directorate chief in New Delhi added fuel into it, market sources said.

The finance minister's statement that ''the devaluation of rouble is bound to have its impact on the Indian trade and economy, further hampered market sentiments here, they added.

The broad-based BSE National Index declined by 21.81 points to 1286.22 points against the previous close of 1306.03 points. The BSE-200 and Dollex indices closed lower by 4.16 and 1.73 points to 299.22 and 115.16 points against the previous close of 303.38 and 116.89 points respectively.

Ranbaxy crashed by Rs 27 to Rs 495.25 from the previous close of 522.25, Dr Reddy's declined sharply and touched the lower level of Rs 471 and registered a recovery towards the end of session, showing a loss of Rs 2 to Rs 487 against the previous close of Rs 489. The market leader ITC also fluctuated widely but closed higher by Rs 10 to Rs 574 from the previous close of Rs 564. The Colgate scrip closed steady at Rs 204.90 from Rs 204.70.

Squaring up by many operators due to last day of trading cycle on the National Stock Exchange also put pressure on the price movement of the pivotals, dealers said.

The business volume on the BSE today crossed Rs 10 billion mark after A long time to touch Rs 10.54 billion.

The market leader ITC continued to enjoy top position and registered highest business volume of Rs 2.12 billion, followed by Satyam Computers Rs 1.30 billion, Zee Telefilms Rs 736 million and Reliance Rs 716.8 million.

Other actively traded scrips are Pentafour Software Rs 574.6 million, Tata Tea Rs 331.1 million, Hindustan Lever Rs 308.6 million, Infosys Tech Rs 292.8 million, Dr Reddy's Rs 265.8 million, BHEL Rs 239.1 million, Castrol India Rs 214.1 million, Bajaj Auto Rs 158.2 million, MTNL Rs 150 million and NIIT Rs 146 million.

UNI