Braodbased tumble

STOCKS REPORT

The benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex closed lower for the fifth straight day with all the major sectoral indexes recording losses.

Nervousness at higher levels was obvious with allround profit booking dragging the markets down. Investors sold metal, consumer durables, oil and PSU scrips, which were among the biggest losers on Thursday.

In the BSE Sensex basket, 28 out of the 30 scrips closed lower. The breadth of the market was also negative, with losers outpacing gainers 17:8. Margin calls and a surge in international crude oil prices to record highs on Wednesday also played on sentiment, brokers said.

Analysts said that worries over higher oil prices led to a weakness in most of the markets overseas, triggering off an extended bout of selling in India.

A dealer from Motilal Oswal Securities said, "Profit taking was seen on Thursday, extending losses from Friday. Nervousness is visible at these levels as players await fresh impetus before taking new calls."

But the undertone is positive on the back of strong liquidity in the markets.

The BSE Sensex hit a high of 6737.29 and a low of 6640.88 in intra-day trades, before closing at 6669.52, down 77.36 points (1.15 per cent) from Wednesday's close.

Volumes were lower than on Wednesday in the cash segment of the bourses; the BSE reported a turnover of Rs 2,492.78 crore and the NSE reported a turnover of Rs 4,541.44 crore.

The Bharti Tele-Ventures scrip was the biggest loser in the Sensex basket, falling 5.13 per cent to close at Rs 198.80, followed by HDFC Bank, down 3.56 per cent to Rs 572.65, Maruti Udyog was down 2.97 per cent to Rs 436.25, Grasim fell 2.51 per cent to Rs 1,306.30 and HPCL was down 2.36 per cent to Rs 331.35.

The two gainers in the Sensex basket included ONGC, up 0.58 per cent to close at Rs 912.85 and ICICI Bank was up 0.15 per cent to Rs 401.30.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) were net sellers for the second straight day, turning net sellers for the first time since January. FIIs sold Indian shares worth Rs 198.80 crore on Wednesday as per data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India website.