The 30-share index opened after losing 171 points at 20,079.89 on yesterday (Jan. 16, 2008), and continued to trade weak all through the day due to heavy selling pressure in key stocks and weak global signs.

Sensex lost over 700 points in the noon and made a fantastic upturn by throwing some of its losses. Lastly the index settled down 382 points. It also touched an intraday low of 19,513.25.

BSE Sensex lost 382.98 points to end the day at 19,868.11, whereas the broad-based NSE Nifty ended at 5935.75, down 2.28 percent.

Stock market analyst, Vishwas Agarwal told, “Today (Jan 17, 2008), we saw a huge fall in the market, largely due to the negative global cues. The condition of our market is not much bad, but investors and traders are following the global market move and selling there investments.”

“From this level, Sensex will stabilize at around 19,550-19,350. Further it will get some support from the RIL result which will be announced on Thursday,” Mr, Vishwas added.

For the coming days, Vishwas stated, “We have whole lot of events in the coming days, ranging from corporate result to RBI and Fed meeting. These events will help the market in moving into right direction and once again getting the hold.”

He also said, “The last week of January and first week of February will be much better. However the current damage in the market will continue at least up to January 18 to January 22.”

Mr. Agarwal has not suggested any stocks for today’s (Thursday) trading session.

However, he advised investor to stay away from the stock market; only smart investors can make money in this dropping market that has missed about 1,700 points in the recent days, he said.