Housing scam pulls down Sensex (Roundup)

MUMBAI - A benchmark index of Indian equities closed a volatile trading day Wednesday 231 points lower as reports of a housing scam involving major housing finance institutions and banks led to heavy selling in banking and realty scrips.

Global cues were also sombre a day after the conflict between the two Koreas and unease over the Irish sovereign debt bailout.

The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 19,735.28 points, closed at 19,459.85 points, down 231.99 points or 1.18 percent from its previous close at 19,691.84 points.

The Sensex touched an intra-day high of 19,835.57 points and a low of 19,375.92 points.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the 50-share S&P CNX Nifty ended at 5,865.75 points, down 1.16 percent.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested senior officials from housing finance companies like LIC Housing Finance and some banks such as the Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of India and the Central Bank of India over a housing loan scandal.

Searches were conducted at Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Jalandhar and other cities following which a case has been filed with the economic offences wing in Mumbai.

The LIC Housing Finance chief executive, LIC’s secretary of investments, PNB’s Delhi deputy general manager, and general managers of Bank of India and Central Bank of India have been arrested, CBI’s economic offences wing chief P. Kandaswamy told reporters here.

Broader markets indices also ended lower, with the BSE midcap index closing 1.11 percent down and the BSE smallcap index 0.56 percent lower.

Banking and realty scrips were among the major losers, while FMCG stocks gained.

The market breadth was negative, with 1,253 stocks advancing, 1,676 scrips declining and 156 remaining unchanged.

Among gainers on the Sensex at this time were M&M, up 3.23 percent at Rs.784.25; Bharti Airtel, up 0.76 percent at Rs.331.65; Tata Steel, up 0.54 percent at Rs.615.35, and ITC, up 0.41 percent at Rs.173.10.

Major losers included SBI, down 3.34 percent at Rs.2,854.10; DLF, down 3 percent at Rs.305.35; BHEL, down 2.74 percent at Rs.2,195.75, and ICICI Bank, down 2.73 percent at Rs.1,125.10.

Other Asian markets were cautious and closed mixed, a day after South Korean and North Korean soldiers exchanged fire.

The Japanese markets ended 0.84 percent lower at 10,030.11 points.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 0.56 percent higher at 23,023.86 points, while the Shanghai Composite index ended 1.12 percent up at 2,859.94 points.

European markets were in the green although investors continued to be concerned over the tensions in Korea, and sovereign debt crisis in Euro-zone economies.

Around mid-day, Britain’s FTSE 100 was trading 0.58 percent up at 5,613.42 points. The German DAX was 0.57 percent higher at 6,743.38 points, while the French CAC 40 was 0.24 percent up at 3,733.24 points.