Sensex ends 247 points lower on institutional selling
04 Aug 2011
The NSE benchmark Nifty fell over a 1% led by panic selling in the last one hour of trade. Major sectors like oil & gas, technology, financial and infrastructure also faced selling pressure. Defensive sectors like FMCG and healthcare too followed the same trend.
It seemed that foreign institutional investors could possibly pare their exposure in some stocks. Heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ITC, NTPC, ONGC, TCS and BHEL were knocked down in the late trade.
The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 247 points, to close at 17,693 and the 50-share NSE Nifty slipped 73 points, to end at 5,332.
Selling pressure was seen in global markets too. Dow Jones and Nasdaq futures were down 0.5% each. Among European markets, France's CAC and Britain's FTSE dropped 0.7% each.
Market breadth was weak, about two shares declined for every one share gained.
Portfolio Manager, PN Vijay feels that panic selling was the reason behind today's fall.