Mumbai: Stocks: Profit-booking in view of political uncertainty about Greece along with plummeting oil prices, pulled down the S&P BSE benchmark sensex by 430 points to finish at 27,458.38 in spite of fag-end buying mainly in IT sectors in view of good results from Infosys.
Steep slide in global crude oil prices stoked fears about deflation even as prospects of Greece dropping the euro weighed on global equity markets.
Heavy foreign capital outflows also affected the market sentiment as foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth a net Rs 2,816.47 crores during the week as per the SEBI's record including the provisional figure of January 9.
Shares of Metal, Power, Realty and Banking sectors fell sharply on heavy selling pressure.
The 30-share S&P BSE Sensex resumed higher at 27,978.43 and firmed up further to 28,064.49 on initial buying. However, it fell to 26,776.12 on heavy selling pressure before ending the week at 27,458.38, disclosing a loss of 429.52 points or 1.54 percent.
The CNX 50-share Nifty also dropped by 110.95 points or 1.32 percent to finish at 8,284.50.
Fresh selling of mid-cap and small-cap shares from retail investors also affected the market sentiment as indices fell by 0.99 and 0.97 respectively.
Infosys gained 2.99 percent as the company reported stronger-than-expected Q3 Dec 2014 results as consolidated net profit as per International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) rose 5 to Rs 3250 crore.
FMCG major Hindustan Unilever jumped 14.19 percent.
As many as 21 shares among the 30-share sensex pack ended lower while remaining others finished higher.
Major losers were BHEL (7.55 ), SSLT (6.60 ), Icici Bank (5.65 ), HDFC (5.09 ), Tata Power (4.26 ), SBIN (3.79 ), Axis Bank (3.66 ), Hero Motocorp (3.38 ), Hindalco (3.19 ), ITC (3.14 ), NTPC (3.01 ), Bajaj Auto (2.93 ), Reliance Ind (2.84 ), Tata Steel (2.74 ), TCS (2.28 ) and Larsen (2.23 ).
However, other gainers were Maruti (3.16 ), Tata Motor (1.98 ) and HDFC Bank (1.01 ).
Among the S&P BSE sectoral indices, Metal fell by 4.37 followed by Power 2.60 , Realty 2.54 , Bankex 2.22 and Capital Goods 1.89 while FMCG firmed up by 0.75 and IT 0.29 .
The total turnover at BSE and NSE rose further to Rs 15,597.01 cr and Rs 83,908.67 cr respectively from the last weekend's level of Rs 11,892.08 cr and Rs 56,194.52 cr respectively.
Forex: The Indian rupee continued to rule firm for the second consecutive week against the American currency, surging 97 paise to end at 62.32 per dollar on persistent selling of dollars by banks and exporters and on continued optimism of inflows.
The rupee resumed lower at 63.43 per dollar as against the last weekend's level of 63.29 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market and dropped further to 63.62 on initial dollar demand from banks and importers on the back of higher dollar in the overseas market.
However, it recovered at the fag-end of the week to a 4-week high of 62.29 per dollar before ending at 62.32 per dollar on selling of dollars by exporters, showing a gain of 97 paise or 1.53 percent.
The local unit had last ended at 62.29 per dollar on December 12, 2014.
The rupee has gained 125 paise or 1.97 percent in the two weeks.
