Sensex at week's low; down 133 points on weak global markets

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The BSE Sensex fell to one-week lowof 18,625.34, down 133.29 points, pulled down by RIL, ICICI Bank, HUL and ITC as investors booked profits ahead of next week's RBI monetary policy amid mixed corporate quarterly results and weak trends in global equities.

While ICICI Bank and HUL logged in profits for the July-September quarter of the current fiscal, Punjab National Bank and GAIL reported losses.

In all, 12 of the 13 sectoral indices closed with losses of between 0.22 per cent and 2.84 per cent; only auto index gained 0.81 pc on hopes of higher sales this festive season.

Fresh offloading by FIIs also aided the downtrend. FIIs sold shares worth Rs 551.34 crore on Thursday as per provisional data with the stock exchanges. The BSE 30-stock index, Sensex, resumed lower on weak Asian cues and remained in the negative terrain throughout the day. The trend was aided by sluggish openings in the European equities.

It closed at over one-week low of 18,625.34, a fall of 133.29 points or 0.71 per cent. Similarly, the NSE 50-issue index, Nifty, dipped by 41 points or 0.72 per cent to over one-week low of 5,664.30.

Barring Singapore, which was closed on Friday, other Asian markets finished with marked losses amid weak quarterly earnings by corporates in the region.