Indian shares crash for fourth successive day

Bears appeared to be in full control of Indian equities market Wednesday as a key market index crashed for the fourth straight day by as much as 4.72 percent, or 460.95 points, on heavy selling by investors.

Within an hour of the trading, the 30-scrip sensitive index ( Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which had opened at 9, 664.90 points as against Wednesday's close of 9,756.76 points, dipped to the day's low of 9,200.80 points.

At that level, the barometer index was down 555.66 points, or 5. 69 percent, over the previous day's close.

Then began a long bout of volatile trading as the markets tried to gain some lost ground, but never really managed to make a meaningful recovery. The Sensex finally ended at 9,295.81 points with a loss of 460.95 points, or 4.72 percent.

It has dipped 775.61 points, or 7.7 percent, over the past week and a whopping 3,166.68 points or 25.41 percent in the past month, statistics with the exchange showed. Moreover, the index is ruling sharply lower than an all-time high of 12,671.11 points reached May 11.

"The extent of fall here has been rather sharp and prolonged because of some redemption pressures on mutual funds and fears over inflation and interest rates due to the recent hike in fuel prices," Indo-Asian News Service quoted an analyst as saying.

The fall for the fourth straight day occurred despite foreign funds emerging net sellers on all the three days of the week for which data is available with the markets watchdog.

Source: Xinhua