Mumbai, April 27
In a knee-jerk reaction to the exit poll results that indicated a hung Parliament, share prices, across the board crashed at the local bourses today, with bulls running for cover and pulling down the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex by a whopping 213.30 points — its biggest single day losses in three years — to 5712.28 points.Market opened on a distinctly weak note, further lost ground heavily as trading progressed with political uncertainty propelling heavy selling across the board, Mr Sameet Lala, analyst at Asit C. Mehta Intermediaries Ltd said.
The exit poll result after the second phase of polling indicated the ruling NDA may end up below the absolute majority of 272 seats, he added.
The 30-stock Sensex which opened 58 points lower at 5868.33, which itself was the day’s high, nose-dived by 218 points to a low of 5704.28, before finishing at 5712.28 points, its lowest closing after March 31, and shedding 213.30 points of 3.6 per cent from last Friday’s close of 5925.58 points.
The CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was lost 75.20 points at 1817.25 points.
The PSU shares were the worst hit as fears of slowing down the disinvestment process in case the ruling party lost majority, forced players to unwind positions in state-owned companies, Mr Lala said.
Banking stocks also suffered heavily with the RBI tightening norms for dividend payout by banks adding fuel to the overall market fall after the exit poll results.
Most of the other sectors, including software, cement, auto, steel, media, FMCGs and telephone stocks also lost ground on all-round selling.
The market ignored the impressive corporate results and all positive economic fundamentals as large players, including foreign funds sniffed political instability and unwound positions ahead of the final election results. The expiry of the April derivates contracts on Thursday also pressured the markets, another broker said.
Market which was riding on impressive Q4 results, strong economic fundamentals and hopes that the ruling NDA alliance would win the elections after the earlier exit poll results, got a shock after the second round of exit poll, which indicated a hung Parliament. —
UNI
