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US-Iraq bomb boom echoes in Indian bourses: Sensex dips 127 points and Nifty 35 points

The joint attack by the United States and Great Britian on Iraq affected sentiments at the Bombay Stock Exchange. The 30-share Sensex crashed by 127 points and closed below the psychological barrier of 2900 points. There was a sharp decline in share prices during the week ended December 19.

The market opened on a dismal note as there was uncertainty among the operators over the passage of the insurance bill and patents bill in the current session of Parliament.

The market saw some recovery on Wednesday on heavy buying support from foreign institutional investors. However, on Thursday, share prices crashed in reaction to air strikes.

Sensex lost 127.45 points, down to 2875.09 points from the previous week's close of 3002.54 points. The broad-based BSE-100 index too moved down by 54.51 points to 1273.17 points as against the last week's close of 1327.68 points.

The BSE-200 and Dollex indices closed lower by 20.76 and 9.51 points to 680.25 and 569.23 points from the previous week's close of 707.25 and 589.99 points respectively.

Among the few gainers, ACC closed higher by Rs 21 to Rs 886, Infosys Technologies Rs 64.75 to Rs 2675, Pentafour Software Rs 23.75 to Rs 512, Raymond Rs 2.60 to Rs 84.10, Voltas Rs 2.20 to Rs 83.20 and Zee Telefilms Rs 33.25 to Rs 586.25.

The losers included Bajaj Auto which crashed by Rs 7 to Rs 505, Asian Hotel Rs 6.50 to Rs 150, BHEL 12.70 to Rs 237, BSES Rs 6.80 to Rs 139.10, Cadbury's Rs 9 to Rs 434.75, Dabur Rs 21.25 to Rs 386.75, Dr Reddy's Rs 7.75 to Rs 450.50, Glaxo Rs 28.35 to Rs 603.25, German Remedies Rs 28.75 to Rs 593.75, Hindustan Lever Rs 87.75 to Rs 1655.50, Hindalco Rs 29.50 to Rs 499.50, India Hotel Rs 70.80 to Rs 305.75, ITC Rs 20.50 to Rs 696, Mahindra and Mahindra Rs 2.50 to Rs 153.80, MTNL Rs 19 to Rs 165, Nestle Rs 12.25 to Rs 443.75, NIIT Rs 12.55 to Rs 1461, Novartis Rs 8.25 to Rs 841.50, Pfizer Rs 37.25 to Rs 833.75, Ranbaxy Rs 16.30 to Rs 248.80, Reliance Rs 6.80 to Rs 112.50, SBI Rs 7.90 to Rs 150.10, Tisco Rs 6.10 to Rs 97 and Tata Tea Rs 5.05 to Rs 294.20.

According to analysts, Raymond, Pentafour and Zee Telefilms were seen driven by operators on proposed merger, bonus and acquisition rumours.

Total turnover on the BSE reported during the week was Rs 59.24 billion.

The National Stock Exchange too witnessed bearish trend during the week.

The S&P CNX CNX Nifty declined sharply by 34.80 points to 835.20 points from the previous week's close of 870. The CNX Nifty Junior ended lower by 24.25 points to 1413.40 points from the last week's close of 1437.65 points.

S&P CNX Defty eased by 27 points to 680.25 points from last Friday's close of 707.25 points.

CNX-500 and Midcap-200 dropped by 20.76 and 9.51 points to 569.23 and 512.27 points from the last week's close of 589.99 and 521.78 points respectively.

Total turnover on the NSE reported during the week was Rs 80.14 billion.

UNI

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