Sensex completes 4-session fall, down by 110 pts

Narrowly mixed Asian cues, where the China`s Shanghai Composite Index tumbled by 1.74 pct after a few corporate profit warnings and some downbeat comments on the economy from Premier Wen Jiabao, sending the Shanghai Composite to its lowest finish in more than three years, amid weak European trends also weighed on the market sentiment.

IT counters continued its downward march for the last few days after Infosys disappointed by its Q1 performance in dollar terms announced on July 12. TCS, country`s largest software services exporter, despite good first quarter results dropped by 3.16 per cent and was the second biggest loser from the sensex pack.

Second biggest software exporter Infosys continued its decline and was down by 2.48 pct and both top two software exporters contributed over 55 points to the sensex fall. Besides IT stocks, Tata Motors, L&T, Tata Steel, ITC, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Jindal Steel also suffered sharp to moderate setback. However, Bharti Airtel, HDFC, SBI, DR Reddy`s Lab, ONGC, RIL, Maruti Suzuki, Cipla, Sun Pharma and Hero Honda closed with marked to moderate gains and restricted the sensex fall.

The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share gauge moved erratically in a range of 17,282.30 and 17,079.63 before concluding at 17,103.31, showing a fall of 110.39 points or 0.64 pct. In straight four session of losses, the sensex has plunged by 515.04 points or 2.92 pct. The NSE wide-based 50-issue Nifty also declined by another 30.00 points or 0.57 pct to end below 5,200-mark at 5,197.25. FIIs bought shares worth a net Rs 281.13 crore on last Friday as per provisional data released by stock exchanges.

Meanwhile, inflation (WPI) declined to 7.25 per cent in June, from 7.55 per cent in May. Most Asian stocks ended narrowly mixed today despite US shares ended with solid gains on last Friday on the back of better-than-expected quarterly results from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.and Wells Fargo and Co. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea ended up between 0.11 pct and 0.27 pct while from Taiwan closed down by 0.20 pct, Japan market was closed today for holiday.

European stocks were quoting lower in their afternoon deals. The CAC was down by 0.29 pct and the DAX and the FTSE by 0.20 pct each. Back home, from the 30-share sesnex pack 20 scrips ended in red while others settled in the green. Other losers from the sensex pack were Tata Steel (3.95 pct), Jindal Steel (2.69 pct), Tata Motors (2.63 pct), Tata Power (2.23 pct), Gail India (2.04 pct), Sterlite Ind (1.84 pct), Hindalco Ind (1.70 pct), Larsen (1.53 pct), and Wipro 1.02 pct).