BSE sensex unlikely to scale new heighs this year: survey

The BSE Sensex should recoup recent losses but will still end 2011 where it began, as inflation concerns could yet dampen investor appetite in an otherwise fast-growing economy, a Reuters poll released on Friday has found.

The main 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex has been by far the worst performer among the 18 major stock exchanges covered by the latest Reuters poll so far this year, having lost more than 10 per cent of its value from the 2010 close.

While it should rise just 1 per cent by the end of June from Thursday's close of 18,350 and 12 per cent by the end of 2011, it looks set to finish the year without significant gains, according to the median response of 26 market participants from a poll taken over the past week.

If the benchmark does break even this year as analysts expect, that would still be the least impressive performance compared with forecasts for all the other indexes.

The poll of investment banks and brokerage firms sees the main index at 18,550 at end-June and at 20,500 at the end of the year, not far from 2010's 20,509 close.

 The estimates from a similar poll conducted three months ago were more optimistic and those forecast the Sensex to rise to 22,000 by mid-2011 and 23,350 by year-end.