India Stocks Review: Sensex at lowest close in 2008; ICICI Bank dn

[K.Karthik Raja]

India Stocks Review: Sensex at lowest close in 2008; ICICI Bank dn
Tuesday, Mar 4
MUMBAI - Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-Share Sensex witnessed its
lowest-ever close in 2008, with bank shares amongst the worst-hit as
index major ICICI Bank tumbled 5%, dealers said.
Trade was choppy throughout the session as investors remain
nervous amid uncertain market direction in overseas indices.
Sensex ended at 16339.89, down 337.99 points or 2.0%, after moving
between a low of 16164.57 and a high of 16754.06 intraday.
National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty ended below the 5000 mark
for the second consecutive session at 4864.25, down 88.75 points or
1.8%. It moved between 4812.95 and 4976.70 during the session.
Shares had opened slightly higher, but soon slipped into the red
as Asian markets were trading off highs.
Trade was suspended between 11:45AM and 12:25PM due to sun outage.
Market timing will be extended to 4:15PM from 9:55AM till Mar 18 for
this reason.
Sun outage is the interruption or distortion of geo-stationary
satellite
signals because of solar radiation that overwhelms the satellite
signals.
Just before trade resumed at 12:30PM, Minister of State for Finance
Pawan Kumar Bansal said ICICI Bank had lost $264 mln (1.06 bln
rupees)on overseas operations during the sub-prime mortgage crisis in
U.S.
ICICI Bank shares ended down over 5% at 971 rupees, after dropping
to an intraday low of 930 rupees on the news.
This also dented sentiment for other bank shares, which have
already been battered due to a lack of clarity on how government
proposes to reimburse the 600-bln-rupee farm loan waiver announced in
the Union budget for 2008-09 (Apr-Mar).
Punjab National Bank ended at 518 rupees, down 5% from previous
close, while State Bank of India ended down 2% at 1,876 rupees.

K.Karthik Raja
www.kences1.blogspot.com