Thumbs Down for Interim

Budget disheartens D-street;

Sensex ends over 3.4% down The 30-share BSE Sensex which belled on a negative note on negative global cues continued its bearish trend after the sixth interim budget failed to bolster investor confidence.

Interim budget 2009-10 announced today by minister of external affairs, Pranab Mukherjee, highlighted the state of economy and outlook for the future and said that the UPA kept the promises outlined in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP).

Asian stocks declined, led by finance and consumer companies, as Japan`s economy overshrank the most since 1974 and Group of Seven finance chiefs said the economic slowdown will persist through most of 2009.

The Sensex ended the day with a loss of 329.29 points, or 3.42% at 9,305.45 after touching a high of 9,637.04 and a low of 9,279.10. The broad-based NSE Nifty fell 99.85 points, or 3.39% at 2,848.50 after hitting a high of 2,953.20 and a low of 2,839.10.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap too ended on a negative note down 2.93% and 2.10% respectively.
All Sectoral indices also ended on a negative note led by Metal (4.75%), Realty(4.58%), Bankex (4.58%), Capital Goods (4.55%) and Oil and Gas (4.23%).
ITC which gained 0.75% was the only major gainer in the 30-share index .

On the other hand, Jaiprakash Associates (7.88%), Reliance Energy (6.35%), ICICI Bank (5.79%), Reliance Communications (5.78%), Tata Steel (5.20%) and Reliance Industries (5.17%) were the major losers in the Sensex.

Overall market breadth was negative. Out of the total 2,482 shares traded at BSE, 776 advanced, 1,598 declined while 103 remained unchanged.

Source: IRIS (16 February 2009)