Sensex ends down 48 points

MUMBAI, Apr 30 (Business Standard): The benchmark indices had a roller-coaster ride before ending in the red for the fourth straight session due to both domestic poll-related concerns and global geo-political worries. The BSE Sensex oscillated in a broad range of 400 points between a high of 22,680 and a low of 22,284 before ending at 22,417, down 48 points and the Nifty ended just short of the technically important level of 6670 at 6696, down 18 points. The broader markets underperformed their heavyweight counterparts; the midcap index ended at 7323, weaker by 82 points and the smallcap index ended at 7489, down 124 points. All the sectoral indices ended lower, with banking, capital goods and realty emerging as the biggest losers.

Call it profit-booking, premature end of 'Modi rally' ahead of the poll results or the simmering tensions between the West and Russia over Ukraine, the market rally seems to have lost steam in the past four trading sessions. The trading day had begun on a cheerful note, with the markets snapping three successive days of losses on the back of gains in heavyweights such as RIL and ITC. But the rebound was short-lived as investors have seemingly turned wary about the outcome of the elections result on May 16, despite the consensus favouring a Narendra Modi-led regime at the Centre. Moreover, global investors are cautious ahead of the outcome of the Fed meeting as well as key US jobs data scheduled on Friday, and against a backdrop of continuing tensions in Ukraine. A two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on monetary policy review concludes today, 30 April 2014.

Asian shares were mixed, while the yen strengthened to session highs after the Bank of Japan's latest upbeat economic projections suggested no additional stimulus was on the near-term horizon.

And trading in US index futures indicates that the Dow could fall 19 points at opening bell on 30 April 2014.

On the political front, seven states and two union territories are going to polls in the 7th phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections on Wednesday.