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Markets volatile: Sensex closes under 4600, Nifty at 1365, rupee-$ 43.38

The Bombay Stock Exchange has been experiencing volatile swings since Thursday morning.

At 1530 hours IST, the benchmark index, the 30-share Sensitive Index or Sensex crashed to 4625 level, down 130 points or 2.73 per cent from Wednesday's close of 4755.

Foreign institutional investors and operators resorted to profit-booking on the penultimate day of the weekly settlement, dealers said.

The market sentiment was also down due to disappointing second quarter results of several well-known companies, including Indian Hotels and IDBI. The fact that the Congress has threatened not to cooperate in the matter of enacting legislations for economic reform has not helped the sentiment, dealers said.

Pivotals were reported weak. So were cement and software shares. Pharma counters witnessed mixed trends. Hindustan Lever, NIIT and Infosys continued to retreat on profit-booking. IDBI was close to the lower limit of the circuit-breaker.

The Sensex closed at 4594, down 161 points or 3.38 per cent.

At the National Stock Exchange, the S&P CNX Nifty ended at 1365, down 45 points or 3.29 per cent from Wednesday's close of 1410.

At the inter-bank foreign exchange market, the Indian rupee was steady at 43.38 to the US dollar.

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Oct 29, 1999: Markets continue to decline; Sensex at 4525 in early trades

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