MUMBAI: Moving in tandem with global bourses, the benchmark Sensex on the Bombay Stock Exchange lost over 260 points to once again slip below 9000-level ahead of unwinding of a slew of measures by the Centre on Saturday to rejuvenate the economy following global financial downturn.
The 30-share Sensex closed at 8965.20, down by 264.55 points, wiping off more than half of the gains of 482 points notched up on Thursday.
Belying expectations, banking and realty stocks suffered losses, partly shaving off the gains they posted in the past two-three days in anticipation of rate cut the by the Reserve Bank of India and a stimulus package by the Government.
Brokers said expectations of interest rate coming down and positive aspects of the economic package, to be announced on December 6, had already been factored in the Thursday’s trading.
Gloomy outlook for key the U.S. and European markets continued to impact investor sentiment which was reflected in IT stocks which took a beating marketmen said
Experts said investors treaded a cautious path after monitoring Asian indices, which ended steady to positive, and European markets which resumed sharply lower by 1-2.3 per cent despite drastic rate cuts by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.
Rupee gains
The rupee gained against the dollar on Friday to end at 49.57/58. It closed at 49.86/87 on Thursday.
At the inter bank foreign exchange market the rupee resumed at 49.85/89 and later recovered to 49.67/68 on heavy dollar selling by exporters and also some foreign banks.