MUNI THE BOSS

Frenzied profit-booking sparked by a weak trend in Asia saw the BSE benchmark Sensex fall below the crucial 20,000 points level on Tuesday, while the NSE's broad-based Nifty index also sunk beneath the magic 6,000 marker as metal and IT stocks took a beating.

While the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex fell by 417.93 points to 19,991.76, the broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty was down by 132.95 points at 5,988.65 at 1200 hours.

After a weak opening, selling pressure gathered momentum after leading Asian stock indices, led by Hong Kong and Japan, nosedived on concerns over the deepening Irish debt crisis .

“The gap between 6032 and 6084 has been marginally left unfilled and is likely to get covered on the back of waning momentum and negative price patterns. The oscillators on the daily chart continue to point lower throwing caution to any short-term pullback.

Yesterday’s up move seems shallow and is likely to face selling pressure near 6175-6190 range. However the medium term uptrend remains intact as long as 5937 is not violated. It is advisable to trade individual stocks on their merit,” said Edelweiss report.

BSE Midcap Index was down 0.94 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index fell 0.93 per cent.

Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Metal Index moved 2.33 per cent lower, BSE Capital Goods Index fell 1.88 per cent and BSE IT Index declined 1.69 per cent.

Sterlite Industries (-5.34%), Hindalco (-3.17%), Tata Motors (-2.90%), L&T (-2.88%) and Wipro (-2.82%) led the decline.

Bharti Airtel (1.11%) was the lone gainer.

Market breadth turned negative on the BSE with 1962 declines against 854 advances.

The regional index for Asian markets fell for the third straight session today on speculation that governments will take further steps to cool down inflation, coupled with a decline in raw material prices.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped by 0.2 per cent to 131.41 in Tokyo, with about five stocks falling for every three that climbed.