Bigwigs battered

STOCKS REPORT

Profit booking in index heavyweights dragged the markets down in a volatile trading session on Wednesday, where the Sensex rallied by more than 80 points in intra-day trades.

From the day's high of 5799.92, the Sensex ended 44.92 points lower at 5713.75. The NSE S&P CNX Nifty shed 17.55 points to end at 1,794.90.

Blue chip stocks witnessed profit booking with 26 out of the 30 Sensex shares closing lower. The BSE Tech Index was the biggest loser, down 1.55 per cent, followed by the PSU index, down 1.19 per cent and the BSE Healthcare Index down 1.27 per cent. The BSE Auto Index was down 1.06 per cent, followed by the BSE Bankex down 1.01 per cent.

The breadth of the market was negative, with 1,204 losers, 987 gainers and 83 shares ended unchanged.

Brokers said, "The markets ended lower on profit-booking in the second half of the session. The correction might continue for a day or two, but the trend will be good for the markets."

Volumes on the bourses were high, with shares worth Rs 2,425 crore being traded on the BSE, compared with Rs 2,047.29 crore on Tuesday.

Despite sustained foreign fund inflows and hopes of strong quarterly results, the market undertone appeared to be cautious on rising global oil prices.

International crude oil prices hit a new high of $51 per barrel on Tuesday. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers on Tuesday to the tune of Rs 176.6 crore, while mutual funds were net sellers worth Rs 82.3 crore.

Since the beginning of the month, FIIs have pumped in Rs 832.6 crore in the markets, while mutual funds were net sellers of Rs 6.3 crore worth equities.

Heavyweights ITC was down 1.79 per cent to Rs 1,123.80, State Bank of India down 1.94 per cent to Rs 480.40 and ICICI Bank down 0.50 per cent to Rs 295.65 also contributed to the fall in the Sensex.

Among gainers were HDFC Bank up 3.54 per cent at Rs 668.30, Hindustan Lever up 1.60 per cent at Rs 127.00, BHEL up 1.53 per cent to Rs 613.75 and Reliance Industries up 1.33 per cent to Rs 546.80.

Technology stocks lost ground after a smart rally in the past few days. Wipro was down 2.42 per cent to Rs 621.80, Satyam Computer down 1.93 per cent to Rs 390.45 and Infosys Technologies down 1.84 per cent to Rs 1,685.85.

Profit booking was also witnessed in cement and pharmaceutical stocks. Among cement stocks, Grasim was down 2.35 per cent to Rs 1,144.25, Gujarat Ambuja Cements down 1.59 per cent to Rs 354.95 and ACC ended 0.47 per cent lower to Rs 273.70.