Sensex falls below 6,000
Mumbai: The benchmark 30-share BSE Sensex dipped over 1 per cent or 63.76 points to close at 5,961.71 points on selling pressure led by Sensex heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL).

Following reports of Mukesh Ambani, chairman Reliance Industries, acknowledging a split with brother Anil Ambani, vice chairman of RIL, the company's scrip started falling. With about 16 per cent weightage in the Sensex the RIL counter accounted for 0.15 per cent fall in the index. Rise in inflation rates also attributed to the weakness in the market.

The BSE Sensex opened at 6,030.81, up 5.35 points from its previous close of 6,025.47 and after touching an intra-day high of 6,044.55 in the early trades, the index hovered around its opening levels till afternoon.

After this the selling pressure from institutional investors in the RIL counter, dragged the index lower to touch an intra-day low of 5,953.42, before settling the day at 5,961.71.

The Sensex ended with a loss of 2.30 points for the week.

Another factor affecting sentiment was reports of a rise in inflation rate, which said that for the week ended November 6, the inflation rose by 70 basis points to 7.76 per cent from 7.06 per cent a week earlier.

The total combined turnover on BSE and NSE was recorded at Rs 6,687.58 crore compared with Thursday's Rs6,431.1 crore.

Pharma companies' shares were hammered in the European market where the shares of leading pharma companies took a knock on the news of scrutiny of five drugs.

In the European market, companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca fell sharply after the news of US FDA calling for a close watch of these drugs.

In Indian stock markets, the BSE Healthcare Index saw a dip of 1.37 per cent compared to over one per cent fall by the BSE Sensex.

On the BSE GlaxoSmithKline Pharma was down 1.53 per cent at Rs747.05, Aventis Pharma was down 3.25 per cent at Rs1,064.35, Dr Reddy's Laboratories was down 1.33 per cent at Rs789, Cipla down 0.90 per cent at Rs265.15 and IPCA Laboratories down 0.89 per cent at Rs754.

The RIL scrip closed at Rs527.15, down by Rs 18.40. Reliance Energy closed at Rs620.70, nearly Rs7.75 lower from Thursday's close. In fact, scrips of all four Reliance entities went on a downward spiral during Friday's trade.

At the BSE, RIL shares closed lower by 3.37 per cent, Reliance Energy by 1.23 per cent, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd by 5.84 per cent and Reliance Capital by 0.86 per cent.

Media reports suggesting that the late Dhirubhai Ambani did not leave a will and that, as per laws governing Hindu succession, his widow and all four children could get equal shares of his holding, added to the uncertainty about the company.

Pantaloon Retail touched a new high and crossed the Rs500-mark on active buying interest from institutional interest. The stock closed at Rs532.80, up 9.39 per cent on the BSE with volumes of 46,897 shares and on the NSE it closed at Rs534.10, up 8.99 per cent with volumes of 1.34 lakh shares.

Pantaloon runs several retail stores under various brands. Among the most popular are Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar and Pantaloon.

The sharp rise in the stock price came after the company's annual report said that it would soon have one million square foot of retail space in various parts of the country. The company's stores across the country had robust sales this month due to Diwali. The company is adding at least 1-2 stores every month and this is expected to show growth in the topline and bottomline in the current and the next fiscal year.

Kishore Biyani, chief knowledge officer of the company had stated year the company targeted to become a Rs1,000-crore company by the end of 2005 fiscal year.
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